Highlights:
- Indian Hospital using a robot to help COVID-19 patients cope with loneliness
- The robot is used by the patients who cannot use their phones
- The robot named Mitra is also being used to remote consultation to reduce the risk of infections
As the healthcare workers for the novel Coronavirus across the globe are facing a serious threat to their life by fetting infected, an Indian hospital is taking the help of a robot to reduce the risk of contracting the deadly virus by their staff and specialists.
A robot named Mitra has been deployed as a customer-service robot to patrol the hospital wards. The robot also helps Coronavirus patients in connecting with their friends and relatives.
Mitra is prominently being used by the patients who are unable to communicate using their phones in addition to being used for the remote consultations with the specialists to mitigate the risk of contracting the deadly virus.
Back in 2017 at the Global Entrepreneur Summit in Hyderabad, Mitra rose to fame after being introduced to the daughter of the US President Donal Trump, Ivanka Trump and the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi.
Mitra, the robot, is developed by Invento Robotics, a Bengaluru based start-up. Going by the claims of the Director of the company which runs the hospital, Mitra has cost them a whopping Rs 10 lakh.
The information was provided by Yatharth Tyagi, the Director of the firm which runs the Hospital.
Mitra comes equipped with facial recognition technology which helps it recall the patients and other people it had interacted with in the past. A tablet is attached to Mitra’s chest which allows the patients to see their loved ones and also the medical staff who are unable to access the wards.
Dr Arun Lakhanpal, a doctor at the Yatharth Super Speciality Hospital located in Noida Extension, Uttar Pradesh, said, “It takes a lot of time to recover, and during this time, when patients need their families the most, they are unable to visit,”.
Makhanlal Qazi, a Coronavirus patient who has used Mitra to communicate with his relatives said, “We mainly discuss my health,”. Mr Qazi who is also a retired government bureaucrat added, “I came here on Friday and now I have started feeling better. I am feeling very happy now.”
Tyagi said, “Normally it is very difficult for a psychologist or a dietician to see a COVID patient,” and added that the robot, Mitra, is “very useful”. India has become the second worst hit country by the novel Coronavirus with over 50 lakh COVID-19 cases until today. The United States of America is still the worst hit country in the world with more than 67 lakh COBID-19 cases.
