JERUSALEM: Israel's largest hospital's oncology department will soon deploy drug-delivery robots which will use a system of underground tunnels, regular corridors, and even call and ride elevators, to quickly deliver drugs to patients, according to a media report on Friday.
From next month, as soon as Sheba Medical Center's oncology department needs chemotherapy drugs, which must be prepared in the pharmacy, small Israeli-produced robots will take them straight to the nurses who ordered them, and help save patients hours of waiting time, The Times of Israel reported.
The hospital hopes to eventually expand the system, and have robots constantly making drug-delivery runs to all departments.
"This is very exciting as we're moving from needing humans to transport drugs to a solution that uses robots to increase speed and efficiency," Ronen Loebstein, director of clinical pharmacology at Sheba, told TOI.
It will be the first deployment of robots by Israeli startup Seamless Vision, which hopes to now attract clients internationally, the report said.
The company's CEO, Amir Nardimon, said that while some robotic drug delivery systems already exist, this is more advanced than others because the robots are able to operate even in the most crowded areas, and are able to negotiate in outdoor spaces with relatively flat surfaces, as well as indoors.
"The robots have four wheels and an electrical engine,"" Nardimon said adding, "The batteries provide six to eight hours of charge for continuous use, and the robots stop and charge themselves wirelessly between tasks".
"The compartment for the drugs is refrigerated at four degrees Celsius, and is secured, meaning it's locked so drugs can't be removed unless people have permission', the executive noted stressing that "and are generated if anyone tries to mess with the robot, meaning it won't be 'kidnapped'".
The hospital's chief pharmacist Dr Ande Lazarovich, said that the deployment will really make a difference to patients as the [golf cart] driver right now comes to take chemotherapy drugs once an hour.
"If we prepare drugs one minute after he (golf cart driver) leaves, that patient will be waiting for another hour or more. But with the automated system, there will be several robots and they can be sent out as needed, reducing the time patients need to wait," Lazarovich was quoted as saying.