MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is looking to produce robots developed by experts at the University of Santo Tomas to limit the exposure of health care workers attending to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients.
According to President Rodrigo Duterte’s latest report to Congress on the use of his emergency powers to address the health crisis, researchers at UST have developed a prototype Logistic Indoor Service Assistant (LISA) Telepresence Robot, a remote-controlled wheeled device that would allow health professionals to talk to their patients via Wi-Fi using a computer, tablet, or smartphone.
It has a complex box that can hold or deliver medicines, food, or supplies to patients for contactless care, thus avoiding the spread of the virus, Duterte said.
“The DOST has approved the proposal submitted by UST to produce more LISA Robots that can be deployed to healthcare facilities attending to COVID-19 patients,” he added.
The LISA robot was deployed for a pilot run on April at the UST Hospital.
/atm