Health & Medicine, UK (Commonwealth Union) – Scientists at the University of Sheffield have made an achievement which is a groundbreaking feat by developing cutting-edge robotics technology that facilitates remote medical treatment for individuals in high-risk emergency environments.
The technology, known as medical telexistence (MediTel), has been pioneered by a collaborative effort from the University’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), Sheffield Robotics, and the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering. The result is a remarkable mobile, robotic-controlled uncrewed ground vehicle (UGV) equipped with virtual reality (VR) capabilities, enabling medics and operators to assess critically injured individuals in hazardous settings. This innovative system allows them to conduct a remote triage while ensuring their own safety.
In an impressive timeline of just nine months, the researchers created the world’s first fully integrated medical telexistence solution. The UGV features two robotic arms that can proficiently operate medical tools from a distance, facilitating a critical initial assessment of a casualty within 20 minutes. This assessment includes checking vital signs such as temperature, blood pressure, and heart rate, performing an abdominal palpation, and even administering pain relief through an auto-injector. Real-time data streaming to the remote operator ensures prompt and accurate decision-making.
Leading the project were David King, Head of Digital Design at the AMRC, and Sanja Dogramadzi, Professor of Medical Robotics and Intelligent Health Technologies at the University’s Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, and Director of Sheffield Robotics. Their pioneering work in this domain represents a significant advancement in remote medical care for high-risk emergency scenarios.
According to David King, the MediTel project has showcased revolutionary medical telexistence technology with life-saving potential, enabling remote assessment and treatment of casualties in perilous settings like humanitarian disasters.
Creating and conducting field tests for such an advanced and intricate system like MediTel within a mere 9-month timeframe stands as a remarkable accomplishment and a true testament to the expertise and proficiency of the entire project team.
The team has successfully crafted a comprehensive solution for conducting casualty triage in hazardous conditions.
David King elaborated that MediTel ingeniously integrates established medical devices with cutting-edge robotics systems, resulting in a versatile platform that empowers a remote operator to navigate challenging terrain and deliver crucial diagnoses for high-risk casualties.
Professor Dogramadzi expressed that the project’s significance lies in creating a platform adaptable for various emergency response services. This achievement serves as the foundation for their ongoing research, aimed at expanding capabilities to enable resilient autonomy and integrate additional sensing modalities, thus enhancing patient triage in various remote settings.
MediTel stood among three groundbreaking telexistence technologies that received funding from a £2.3 million innovation competition held by the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) for the joint funders, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).
Dr. Nicky Armstrong, the technical lead at Dstl, highlighted the immense potential of telexistence technologies in safeguarding end users by keeping them away from hazardous environments or promptly deploying specialists whenever the need arises.
“The prototype technologies developed under the Dstl Telexistence project have enabled us to demonstrate the art of the possible to end users, so that we can better understand where telexistence could add value to defence and security environments.”
Building on the achievements of the project, the team aims to secure additional funding and forge partnerships to fully unlock the potential of MediTel’s medical telexistence technology. Their ultimate goal is to revolutionize the way people are medically triaged in perilous situations where it is unsafe for human intervention. Both King and Dogramadzi expressed their shared vision for the future of MediTel. They aspire to evolve the technology into a comprehensive, large-scale integrated medical emergency platform that can be swiftly deployed to humanitarian disaster zones with multiple casualties.
