Newswise — Berwyn, IL – Staff at Loyola Medicine's MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn are excited to have a new high-tech helper on staff. Moxi, a four-foot-tall robot, can be seen roaming the halls delivering medication, supplies, lab samples, and more. By picking up simple tasks, Moxi's helping nurses and other colleagues concentrate on what they do best, care for patients. In just two months, she's become a valued member of the team.
“Moxi is allowing us to think differently about supply delivery and really enabling our use of technology to drive the needs of health care,” said Jennifer Scheeringa, MSN RN, ACM, CENP, chief nursing officer at MacNeal Hospital. “It's keeping nurses where they want to be, which is at the bedside. Moxi is a great part of our future.”
Using machine learning technology and an array of sensors, Moxi has mapped the halls of MacNeal. The robot's mechanized arm can navigate multiple types of doors, including those that require badge access. Moxi's base contains multiple drawers which can be locked so nurses can use Moxi to safely fetch supplies, deliver lab samples and lightweight equipment and pick up medicines from the pharmacy.
"Moxi has definitely helped with just allowing us to be on the floor a little more, allowing us to be more focused on the patients," said Kalynn Bojorquez, RN. "I can now be another resource to the nurses that are on the floor, intead of having to go to other units to find or deliver supplies."
Guadalupe Palomino, a monitor tech in central telemetry, says Moxi has been an enormous help delivering telemonitors. "I never imagined working with a robot, but Moxi is definitely a team player."
Designed to be compatible with the busy, semi-structured environments of hospitals, Moxi’s core technical features include:
- Social intelligence: opens elevators and doors on its own, won’t bump into people or objects in hallways, happily poses for selfies
- Mobile manipulation: Moxi can interact with the hospitals existing environment such as ADA doors and elevators to gain access across the entire facility without requiring a significant investment in infrastructure.
- Human-guided learning: The more your staff uses Moxi, the more Moxi learns and adapts to your environment and way of doing things.
Moxi was designed and created by Diligent Robotics, a robotics company in Austin, Texas that develops artificial intelligence to enable robots to collaborate with and adapt to humans.
Video of Moxi at work at MacNeal Hospital is available at this link.
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