MEDICA 2015 Background Article No. 4: MEDICA CONNECTED HEALTHCARE FORUM: Networking in the field of health has many facets

Network connection from hospitals to schools: The topics at the MEDICA CONNECTED HEALTHCARE FORUM are multi-faceted. Held on new days (from Monday to Thursday) in Hall 15 as part of the world’s largest medical trade fair MEDICA 2015 (November 16 – 19, 2015 in Düsseldorf, Germany with around 4,800 exhibitors), the forum covers a wide spectrum of issues, ranging from networked healthcare systems to the Internet of Things, “Wearable Technologies” and “Medical Apps”.

Two projects deal with young long-term patients, who do not want to, and should not, lose contact to school and their school friends. Within the scope of the Swiss project “Avatar Kids”, the avatar robot “Nao” is the connecting element between school and home and the long-term patient staying in hospital. The connection is established over the Internet. The avatar robot represents the child at school and makes it possible for him or her to be “present” in real-time and participate “live” in school lessons. “Nao is very popular,” explained Jean Christophe Gotanian, CEO of Avatarion Technology. The school children perceive that the absent fellow classmate is present within the robot – and think this is cool most of the time. They can see their fellow classmate via a tablet PC (by Samsung) that has been attached to the head of the movable robot. Thereby, the Avatar robot is not a toy. He is given to the best school friend of the young patient, although it is the teacher that controls the robot with his own tablet PC. Here, he also sees for example what the young patient is writing in the hospital. Four university hospitals and twenty wards are already taking part in the project. According to Christophe Gostanian, contact has already been made with Italy, Belgium, Holland and France. In Germany, the project will be presented to the professional public for the first time at the MEDICA CONNECTED HEALTHCARE FORUM.
Use of the Avatar robot “Nao” should not merely be limited to classrooms. On the one hand, the robots should help to provide the children with information regarding pending interventions. However, using the device on the robot’s head, the young patient can be “beamed” to the schoolyard via an Internet connection or be present during a class trip. Furthermore, by means of this, a connection between the family and the child in the hospital can become a reality. In particular, this can be important during the evening hours when young patients are alone. In the future, use at retirement homes is also planned – where, for example, “Nao” will ask questions, demonstrate yoga or movement exercises or answer questions about the weather, but would also be able to draw bingo numbers. In any case, the experience made with Avatar Kids seems to be encouraging. Patients between the ages of six and 17 are pleased about the new possibilities and the doctors decide on how much their patients can achieve.

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