AI, robots to transform hospitals’ resilience to COVID-19, future disasters

Editor's Note

Leandro Pecchia, PhD, associate professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Warwick, Coventry, UK, has been awarded £13 million (nearly $17 million) for the ODIN project.

The project will explore the use of robots and artificial intelligence (AI) to ease pressures on hospitals during recovery from COVID-19 and future disasters.

Dr Pecchia has identified 11 hospital challenges the project will take on, using robotics, Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI).

The interventions will be piloted in six top hospitals in Europe and will span from clinical to logistic procedures, including patient management, medical device and PPE management, disaster preparedness, and hospital resiliency.

Dr Pecchia and his team also will work with three medical device manufacturers—Samsung, Philips, and Medtronic—and seven other enterprises.