Artificial Intelligence To Medical Robotics
(XENEX GERM-ZAPPING ROBOTS)
ABSTRACT
A robot may be
considered as a machine with built-in intelligence, called artificial intelligence. The paper presents a short introduction
about the disinfectant robots in the
context of artificial intelligence. Hospitals are
synonymous with cleanliness and now an academic medical center is taking
disinfection to futuristic levels. Nicknamed “little Joe” a 3-foot upright
cylindrical robots provide the finishing touches to room sanitation. A rotating
telescopic head emits cidal ultraviolet (UV) rays for 15 minutes in closed,
unoccupied rooms to systematically kill germs dead.
Introduction
Several disciplines of
Science, Technology and Engineering
are involved in building a suitable robot for a specific
application, thus making the field of
robotics a highly interdisciplinary area of specialization.
To build intelligence into the robot, powerful computers with
artificial intelligence, artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic, genetic algorithms etc., are involved.
Artificial
intelligence is a theory. The base object
is the agent who is the "actor". It is realized in software.
Robots are manufactured as hardware. The connection between those two is
that the control of the robot is a software agent that reads data from the sensors decides what to do next and
then directs the effectors to act in the physical world
It's a
staggering modern-day irony that the most common complication for hospital
patients is acquiring an infection during their visit In the U.S., approximately the same
number of people that die from hospital
acquired infections (HAIs) is almost equal to as the number that dies from AIDS, breast cancer and auto accidents
combined. Patients acquire HAIs while receiving care at hospitals for another
condition. These infections, such as MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and C. diff (Clostridium difficile), can devastate and kill patients.
Current CDC statistics show that in the United States, 1 in every 25 patients
will contract an HAI and of those, 1 in 9 will die. HAIs cost the healthcare
industry upwards of $30 billion dollars annually.If this isn't bad enough, the tragedies
from deadly superbugs within healthcare facilities are on the rise and
will likely continue as the last lines of antibiotics fail without any new
drugs moving fast enough up the pipeline to help.
Fortunately, an alternative
to medication promises to vastly improve the disinfection of hospital rooms,
UV light emitting robot.
I.
XENEX BOT:
Additionally,
a system of reflectors allows the light to be focused on areas that have
high-touch surfaces, such as door handles and light switches. In case someone
enters the room when the bot is in operation, a motion detector halts operation
to prevent accidental exposure to humans. Combined with improved hand-washing
and sanitation practices along with recent calls to replace all stainless steel
with copper, these bots can help fight hospital-acquired infections without
relying on antibiotics, which contributed to these superbugs in the first
place.
An increasing number of
hospitals are employing the device. The first facility to do so was Cooley
Dickinson Hospital in Massachusetts, which had previously reported
site-acquired infections of 1 out of every 129 patients. After bringing the
Xenex robot to the hospital in 2011, an 82 percent drop was seen with C. diff.alone.
II.
FUNCTIONS OF DISINFECTANT
ROBOT:
Using
a pulsed-xenon UV lamp, the portable bot shoots out 120 flashes of light per
minute. Each pulse lasts a thousandth of a second each, and a typical treatment
runs for 10 to 20 minutes. The UV rays pass through the outer wall of a
bacterium and damage its DNA, making it impossible for it to mutate or
reproduce. This stops the pathogen from propagating or being harmful.
III.
ADVANTAGES:
·
operation of the robots has less environmental impact than
discarded containers or the heavy use of disinfectants
·
Xenex
Pulsed Xenon UV disinfection technology disables
pathogens that remain after standard room cleaning. This additional layer of protection
takes a matter of minutes, adding minimal time to the cleaning process.
·
The pulsed UV light destroys viruses, bacteria and bacterial
spores without human contact or use of chemicals.
·
A recent study showed that the Xenex bot is superior to bleach at destroying one of
the most concerning pathogens in hospitals, the resilient Clostridium difficile (C. diff) that can survive for months on surfaces.
While cleaning with bleach only destroyed 70 percent of the pathogen in rooms,
a 15-minute treatment using the pulsed UV treatment eliminated 95 percent,
leaving six-times fewer bacteria around
·
Additionally, a recent investigation produced results consistent with
these findings for the common antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
IV.
Disadvantages
·
The issue, of course, is cost. At a price of about $80,000
each, a large facility would require two Xenex bots to keep rooms sterilized
routinely. While this may seem steep, treatment for a single case of MRSA
infection can run $28,000, as CNN reported last year.
·
Other hidden costs, such as training, are minimal.
CONCLUSION
As
the fourth leading cause of death in the US, hospital-acquired infections are
increasingly been seen as costly on top of being a tragic end for people
seeking care. Hopefully, more institutions will implement Xenex bots and the
technology can continue to make strides.
REFERENCE
[1] S.S. Magill, et al, “Multistate
Point-Prevalence Survey of Health Care Associated Infections,” New England
Journal of Medicine, March 27, 2014
[2] National and State
Healthcare-associated Infections Progress Report, Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, March 2014
[3] N.C. Walsh, “C. difficile Inpatient
Stays Long, Costly,” MedPage Today, Dec. 8, 2012
[4] A. Boris, “A Revenue Leak Soon Turns
to Flood: How Payment Penalties for High Infection Rates Could Drain Hospital
Finances,” Becker’s Hospital Review, March 15, 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment