A crucial change is the move to a “person-centric continuum of healthcare” in which patient care is offered in an integrated way. Robotics has a high potential to improve the quality of care ranging from Diagnostics, Intervention, Rehabilitation, Support of Patients and Support of Healthcare Professionals. Advantages include reduction of time spent in the specialized medical centers or hospitals, the possibility of remote care and treatment for example, at home, providing solutions to relieve healthcare staff from strenuous and repetitive tasks, and higher precision in interventions which will make treatments even more effective. The aim of the experts’ group is, to make better use of the core competencies of medical personnel and improve safety and efficiency of the procedures both for patients and medical staff.

Inspired by developments in manufacturing and recognizing the opportunities of information technologies in healthcare, robotics has turned out a valuable technology for supporting innovations in various positions of the patient’s pathway / healthcare continuum. Robotics promises versatility, sustainability and repeatability, but procedures in healthcare also need to be objective and safe for users. The increase of robotics in healthcare solutions in the last 10 years has verified its potential, but still in a limited range of applications, e.g., for special types of rehabilitation or interventions. With the recent developments of service robots and collaborative robots in many other domains – from logistics, cleaning, harvesting to inspection robots, combined with the advancements of AI and data analysis methods (“big data”), robotics solutions are entering the healthcare domain.

The Topic Group Healthcare Robotics aims to facilitate the roadmapping process for robotics in healthcare across Europe. The group defines a set of goals for technical developments and their interdependencies along the future time axis. In addition, it matches the relevance of these goals with respect to requirements for the paradigm-shift in healthcare, societal needs, and future market opportunities.

Please join our network by contacting Dr. Siepel to implement your view in delivering high-quality care and reliability and support the developments in the healthcare sector using robotic solutions.