Care work 2.0: robots, AI and VR as colleagues

How can technology reduce workload and increase job satisfaction? Anyone who follows the guided tour of Ouder Worden 2040 at Zorg & ict will find various answers to that question. It takes interested parties to stands with, for example, reception robots, mini-monitoring devices, community-developed virtual reality and AI applications for voice-controlled reporting or smart scheduling.

What repetitive actions can you leave to a robot? What is the impact of AI on a caregiver's work? Follow the orange balloon and you'll be updated. "But don't stare blindly at the technology," Sjoerd Emonts, consultant at BeBright, warns in advance. He is this Wednesday's "tour leader" on behalf of Ouder Worden 2040. "Labor participation in care we will have to solve as people among ourselves. Do it together."

Small device

A group of consultants, educators, vvt nurses, a mental health innovation manager and a healthcare technology student cross the exhibition floor. They are welcomed first by Walter van Kuijen, CEO of SmartQare. The company has taken a piece of innovation from Philips. They call it ViQtor. It's a very small device to monitor people 24-7 and integrate that into the EHR. The time gained can be put by the healthcare provider into personal interaction with the patient, Van Kuijen said.

Robots in hospitals

Kay de Lange shows at WELBO how their robots perform repetitive operations, especially in hospitals. These, with automatic doors and level floors, are extremely suitable. For example, they conduct discharge interviews with patients at LUMC, robots linked to HiX at Erasmus MC's outpatient clinics pick up patients for consultations and take care of them. Robots deliver medications and take care of the UMCG central reception. "Often they are seen as part of the team," says De Lange. "People also give them a name."

Voice reporting

At Tell James - part of Nijmegen's SpraakLab - account manager Daan Loene shows how spoken reports, intakes or conversations with patients are cleaned up and added to the EPD. "This is already widely used in the mental health and elderly care sector, and we recently started a pilot in some GGDs." Does this change the nature of reporting, the innovation manager from the mental health sector wants to know. By speaking in, they become less short and concise, but Tell James ' AI does take out the duplicate sentences or words.

No more screens

The group then visited AI & automation consultant Florian Dijkstra of Ciphix. The company's mission is to "take the robot out of the human. So if it is up to Ciphix, no more boring and repetitive work. Among other things, they have developed an AI solution for Vitalis. That can predict and solve last-minute downtime services. Replacements in their own team, then the flexpool and then the region receive an automatic notification. The application ensures that the number of freelancers in care institutions can be reduced to a minimum. Where is healthcare headed in the coming years? According to Dijkstra, soon we will no longer work with screens but only with microphones. "We speak into everything and AI will interpret what needs to be done."

Scalable and affordable VR

The final stop in the guided tour is at VR Bieb. There, the group is welcomed by virtual reality expert David de Jong. "VR Bieb develops training courses in close cooperation with communities of caregivers. These are about current issues such as the Care and Coercion Act or about sexual transgressive behavior, about dealing with suicidal thoughts, but they can also be introductory modules for employees in disability care, for example. Care workers want to see and experience and this way they can do that in a safe setting." VR Bieb's aim is to keep the applications "scalable and affordable. They do this by offering a monthly subscription.

The guided tour lasts exactly one hour. So the five visits and conversations there are short. Too short perhaps. But Parenting 2040 thus provides an excellent introduction to the possibilities of making working in healthcare more fun and better.