The use of telemedicine at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria has received a boost, with the arrival of a new mobile robot from Germany.
Named “Stevie the robot”, the mobile robot has been placed inside the hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU), to help improve the treatment of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The University of Pretoria’s (UP’s) faculty of health sciences, which facilitated the deployment of Stevie to the hospital, says the robot enables daily instant live discussion and communication between German and South African ICU teams.
Professor Tiaan de Jager, dean of UP’s faculty of health sciences, says COVID-19 has inspired the healthcare sector to rethink its current systems and how they can be more efficient.
“Telemedicine plays a crucial role in encouraging long-distance patient and clinician care. COVID-19 has been a massive disruptor in society, especially in the healthcare sector.”
Bringing Stevie to SA is part of an inter-disciplinary global telemedicine collaboration between UP’s faculty of health sciences, the Department of Critical Care at Steve Biko Academic Hospital, the Enhanced Recovery after Intensive Care (ERIC)-Tele ICU at Charité Medical University in Berlin, and the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
“The faculty takes pride in responding to the demands of the fourth industrial revolution, which can aid patient care, enhance teaching and learning experience for students and support the university in conducting research that matters, thus leaving a positive impact on society,” says De Jager.
“We are grateful to our collaborators and colleagues for ensuring telemedicine can take centre stage and help us combat COVID-19.”
The Pretoria-based university is no stranger to deploying robots, having introduced robotic librarian assistant, Libby, in 2019.
“Stevie is now officially the much-adored baby of our ICU team and is stimulating much excitement throughout the hospital,” adds professor Fathima Paruk, academic and clinical head of the Department of Critical Care at UP and Steve Biko Academic Hospital.
According to UP, Stevie has a privacy handset which is a live phone to aid confidential communication during ward rounds, a stethoscope port where it can remotely relay information while a patient is being examined, and it enables visualisation of detail for close-up diagnosis and patient care oversight with high-definition pan-tilt-zoom cameras.
“ICU specialists and their teams based in Germany at the CU and RKI will join the South African ICU team through the robot’s digital screen,” notes Paruk.
“Both the SA and German teams, led by ICU specialists, will be able to interact virtually. This will enable the team from Germany to see the patient, look at the ICU monitors, and engage in discussions with patients. The ward round will involve discussing the medical condition and include a management plan over a secure line.”
Professor Paruk indicates that Stevie will be used for the benefit of all ICU patients – COVID-19 patients and all others – as well as for exchange of ideas, specialist training, global collaborations, webinars and educational workshops, and especially for highly-selective or niche specialties in critical care. Specialists will also be able to remotely advise upon and guide a bedside procedure.
She continues that in the context of clinical healthcare medicine, evidence garnered from this collaboration has the potential to inform and shape future practices in SA’s local critical-care setting.
Dr Evgeniya Boklage, country relations officer for the Centre for International Health Protection at the Robert Koch Institute, concludes: “We are happy as the Robert Koch Institute continues to support our clinical partners at the Charité Medical University to help connect them with their colleagues at the University of Pretoria.
“We look forward to the exchange of experiences because each country has a different reality, which can bring forth various opportunities to learn from one another and improve patients’ lives.”
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