The deadly coronavirus outbreak, which has pushed the Chinese medical community into overdrive, has also prompted hospitals to more quickly adopt robots as medical assistants.
Telepresence bots that allow remote video communication, patient health monitoring and safe delivery of medical goods are growing in number on hospital floors in urban China. They are now acting as safe go-betweens that help curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Keenon Robotics Co., a Shanghai-based company, deployed 16 robots of a model nicknamed Little Peanut to a hospital in Hangzhou after a group of Wuhan travelers to Singapore were held in quarantine. Siasun Robot and Automation Co. donated seven medical robots and 14 catering robots to the Shenyang Red Cross to help hospitals combat the virus on Wednesday, according to a media release. JD.com Inc. is testing the use of autonomous delivery robots in Wuhan, the company said. Local media have also reported robots being used in hospitals in the city as well as in Guangzhou, Jiangxi, Chengdu, Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin.