Haalbaarheid en effectiviteit van sociale robots voor het afnemen van vragenlijsten bij oudere patiënten

Summary

Feasibility and effectiveness of social robots in acquiring patient reported outcomes from older adults
Roel Boumans

AIM: To evaluate the quality of care perceived by patients and informal caregivers in an outpatient clinic using a social robot for health status interviews versus the currently used professional interviews.
METHOD: Two pilot studies followed by a multicentre, two parallel groups, non-blinded, randomised controlled trial testing for non-inferiority of the quality of care delivered through robot-assisted care. The intervention concerned a social robot conducting a 36-item questionnaire. As main endpoint the customised Consumer Quality Index (CQI) was used, as reported by patient and informal caregiver for the outpatient pathway of care.
FINDINGS: The pilot studies confirmed acceptability and sufficient data agreement with community dwelling older adults. In the trial 75 intermediately frail older patients in two outpatient clinics were randomized to the intervention and control groups. There was no significant difference in the total patient CQI scores in the two groups, and no significant difference for their family caregivers. No harm or unintended effects occurred.
DISCUSSION and CONCLUSION: Geriatric patients and their informal caregivers valued robot-assisted and non-robot assisted care pathways equally. Social robots can contribute to solving the problem of healthcare work pressure and healthcare worker shortage by supporting healthcare professionals with specific and automatable communication tasks such as health status interviews.

Keywords: integrated care pathway, social robot, quality of care, random