Mar 6 2015
RxRobots™ announced today that it has delivered four MEDi® robots to Alberta Children's Hospital where MEDi® was developed along with plans to expand into the U.S. market this year. RxRobots builds applications for robots to interact with children while they are having painful medical procedures done, such as vaccinations and blood tests.
MEDi® Highlights:
- MEDi® provides extra support in pediatric comfort and care for the patient and efficiency for nurses and therapists.
- Study results published in the journal Vaccine showed that MEDi® reduced children's pain during medical procedures by 50 percent. MEDi® was also found to increase vaccination rates by 10 percent.
Corporate Developments:
- SES Robotics will deliver MEDi® to hospitals in the Northeast, Southern and Midwest regions of the U.S. in 2nd Quarter, 2015.
- RxRobots will distribute SES' RoboHealthy technology within Canada when it is available later this year.
- RoboHealthy is a platform to support the discharge of patients from the hospital and trials are planned to demonstrate its ability to lower hospital re-admittance rates.
- MEDi® is now generally available for hospitals as well as dentistry, clinics, and pediatric centers.
Dr. Tanya Beran, Chief Scientific Officer for RxRobots and Professor in Community Health Sciences at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, said:
"RxRobots is a company that builds applications for robots to interact with children while they are having painful medical procedures done, such as vaccinations and blood tests. These applications tell MEDi® what to say and do in order to distract children from the needle, the bandage, whatever is involved in the procedure. MEDi® coaches them, using the cognitive behaviour interventions that we know from research work. For example, MEDi® shows and role models the behaviors we want the kids to learn. RxRobots looks forward to creating a wide range of applications for a variety of medical procedures from chemotherapy to blood tests. Our mission is to utilize these robots, like MEDi®, to provide extra support in pediatric comfort and care for the patient and efficiency for the nurses and therapists. Alberta Children's Hospital has been very supportive in the development of this technology."
Margaret Fullerton, VP, Alberta Children's Hospital, said:
"Hospitals, even bright and friendly hospitals like this one, can put children on edge, especially if they are here for a procedure that might involve some discomfort. We've been testing the MEDi® robots here for almost three years and it has become quite clear that this technology significantly improves the health care experience for our young patients and their parents and caregivers. The Alberta Children's Hospital is fortunate to have access to the first robots in Canada specifically programmed to help children manage painful or stressful medical procedures. It's a useful – and very cool – technology."
Mark Williams, President and CEO of RxRobots, said:
"We are pleased to partner with SES to deliver our pain management technology to American hospitals. SES will provide regional support and service for MEDi® and we plan to collaborate with SES on software application development."
Robert Stokes, President and CEO of SES, said:
"Hospitals are looking for new and innovative solutions for robotics and MEDi® has been able to reduce pain for children and the distress for the entire family. We are pleased to distribute MEDi® pain relief to our customers. We see many synergies between RxRobots and SES and plan to develop innovative new applications for health care."