Maybe it’s my inner nerd that can’t resist learning about robots. Plus, when a trusted friend told me that Diligent Robotics was on to something special with robots in healthcare, I knew I had to make time to talk with Andrea Thomaz, CEO and Co-Founder of Diligent Robotics. I’m happy to say that I wasn’t disappointed when I learned about their humanoid robot, Moxi, and how the robot is improving healthcare.
In our interview with Thomaz, she shares some of the misconceptions that people have about robotics in healthcare. Then, we ask about the problems that their robot, Moxi solves in healthcare and how it’s able to accomplish them. For example, Moxi can transport items around the hospital saving nurses and other allied staff time walking around the hospital. That includes Moxi being able to navigate elevators and open doors. Two things that are really only possible because it’s a humanoid robot.
What’s fascinating about Diligent Robotics and Moxi’s journey is that Thomaz thought when they started that they’d be using robots to do things like restocking rooms. While evaluating this problem they discovered that the tasks staff really wanted to solve revolved more around transporting items around the hospital which in some ways is a much simpler problem to solve (ie. transporting something is easier than moving supplies to the right place in a supply room) and in others more challenging (ie. elevators, doors, security screening, etc).
Along with learning about how Moxi works in a healthcare organization, we also ask Thomaz how they approach implementing robots and lessons they’ve learned implementing Moxi across many healthcare organizations. This includes changes to workflow and culture that are needed to leverage a robot. We also talk about the number of robots that are needed for an organization to see value and how they charge for their robots. Plus, she highlighted how the same problems Moxi can solve exist in small organizations as larger organizations. A smaller organization just may use 1 robot instead of 2 or 3.
Finally we wrap up the discussion discussing the impact of implementing Moxi in a health system including the response from clinicians and patients. And given Thomaz’s background, I had to ask her what she thought the future of AI powered automation in healthcare environements will look like. Check out our interview with Andrea Thomaz from Diligent Robotics to learn about an innovative humanoid robot that’s solving real problems in healthcare.
Learn more about Diligent Robotics: https://www.diligentrobots.com/
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