Advances in Medical Research
Open Access

Robotics And Mechatronics

Along with minimizing medical and surgical errors, hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are another widespread problem in healthcare that could be improved with robots. The CDC reported that there were 722,000 HAIs in U.S. acute care hospitals in 2011.3 HAIs often occur because hospitals can't always clean rooms with 100 percent sterility between patients, whether due to time constraints or the simple invisibility of germs. Whatever the reason, patients who are already immunocompromised are more susceptible to bacterial infection.To combat this elemental problem, the Xenex, an automated and portable robot, is used to disinfect entire hospital rooms in minutes using pulsed, full-spectrum UV rays that kill a range of infectious bacteria. It's designed to reduce HAIs such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) by killing the microorganisms that cause them, which can be particularly resistant to treatment. Plus, the robot is kind of cute—it looks like an R2-D2 designed to save lives.