Robotic Uses in Pediatric Care: A Comprehensive Review.

PROBLEM

Advances in technology have made robotics acceptable in healthcare and medical environments. The aim of this literature review was to examine how the pediatric population can benefit from robotic therapy and assistance that are currently available or being developed in diverse settings.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

English language full-text publications focusing on pediatric robotic therapy studies for infants and children under the age of 17 indexed in PubMed and CINAHL and published from 2008 to 2018.

SAMPLE

A total of 272 articles were identified, 69 full-text articles were retrieved and assessed for eligibility, and 21 studies were finally used in the literature review.

RESULTS

From 21 studies, all studies reviewed showed that children benefited from robotic therapies were 1) responsive to the therapies and 2) favored robot's presence since the robotic systems increased their attention and ability to participate in tasks. Due to small sample size, results were statistically inconclusive.

CONCLUSIONS

We identified positive findings, where utilizing pediatric robots played vital roles in assisting and enhancing current pediatric and NICU treatments. Overall, our findings suggested that more clinical trials would be essential, but the uses of robots may contribute to the future advancement in pediatric and neonatal healthcare.

IMPLICATIONS

These review and analysis can be used to inform healthcare environments where there is a room for applying robotic assistance, although most studies required further testing with larger sample size to validate their results. This suggests the need for further research for robotics in pediatric and neonatal healthcare.