Photo from the Provincial Government of Bulacan Facebook page
CITY OF MALOLOS, Bulacan, Philippines — In this Bulacan capital, medical doctors will be getting an extra pair of hands, albeit robotic, to monitor the health condition of COVID-19 patients.
These roving robot doctors are equipped with a camera to allow doctors and nurses to monitor their movements and sensor arms that can be controlled remotely to adjust to the position of the patient.
The “Rovidocs” are programmed using a computer tablet and are outfitted with a thermal scanner to detect fever, a tray for medicines and a nozzle spray, and a liquid tank for disinfection.
Customized
In effect, they will reduce the exposure of doctors and nurses to COVID-19 patients, said Prof. Jayson Victoriano, creator of the Rovidocs.
“The robots will still be customized to get a patient’s pulse rate, blood pressure and body temperature,” Victoriano said while presenting the prototype at the provincial capitol here.
The robots can make sure medicines are delivered on time and monitor the hourly status of the patients.
Three of these Rovidocs will be commissioned by the provincial government and stationed at the Bulacan Infection Control Center in Bulacan Medical Center here. Each robot costs P150,000.
Victoriano, who is also the director of the Bulacan State University (BulSU) Institute for Innovation in Business and Emerging Technologies, said the robots would start doing rounds as soon as additional features were added to the prototype that was delivered here on Monday.
Many electronic and steel parts of the robots were ordered from Metro Manila, but other parts had to be imported, causing some delay in the creation of other robots, he said.
Dr. Reynaldo Naguit, chancellor of BulSU external campuses, said the Rovidocs were created after the Department of Science and Technology asked universities to develop solutions to COVID-19.
Naguit said the robots were also created to promote the university’s research and development capacity.