Hospital bed shortages and long-term inpatients mean that the chronically ill are often required to receive care at home. Many households find the application fees and monthly charges for hired foreign care workers prohibitively expensive, and may have no alternative but to rely on relatives to act as the main caregiver. The pressures involved in providing this kind of long-term care often take their toll and can lead to tragic consequences. There are many cases, for example, in which women have resorted to suffocating their mothers-in-law out of frustration and desperation.
These stresses demonstrate again and again the failings of Taiwan’s long-term care system, and things are going to get worse. According to a UNESCO report last year on global population trends, people over the age of 60 represented 11 percent of the world population last year, but this is expected to double to 22 percent by 2050. By that time, the world’s elderly population will have increased more than two-fold, from 743 million last year to about 2 billion in 2050. At that time, there will be more people over the age of 60 in the world than there are under 15s.
The limitations on medical care provision that go hand in hand with an aging population — there is something like one nurse for every 15 patients in Taiwan, compared with one nurse for every six patients in some countries — and are becoming a source of concern, in terms of our ability of improve the efficiency of medical care and reduce the costs thereof. Advances in transmission technologies, wireless communication, interactive video response technologies and medical robotics has seen huge growth in the number of remote non-clinical medical treatment applications and a rapid growth in the market for remote healthcare and medical service robotics. In 2008, the US’ National Intelligence Council (NIC) issued a report entitled Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World, in which it predicted a significant role for service robots in the future.
It is possible to imagine a time when care robots that can express emotions and empathize with patients replace the need for human assistance to people with limited mobility. They would also be able to comfort people suffering the onset of senility, and may even help autistic children who find it difficult to communicate with others.
Distance care options like remote healthcare management and teleconsultations can be invaluable to certain patients, such as those discharged from hospital having been diagnosed with an illness, the chronically ill who need constant monitoring and elderly or disabled patients requiring long-term care. These people could receive face-to-face consultations with medical staff in hospitals from the comfort of their own homes, and would no longer have to wait in line for hospital appointments or risk picking up infections from other patients during visits to hospital.
Taiwan’s remote medical treatment and service robot industry is on the brink of taking off. Considering the size of the country, Taiwan is in a strong position with its advanced technologies and is well-placed to develop intelligent robotics manufacturing. The government and other relevant bodies should take advantage of this window and divert more resources into this area of investment.
Healthcare robots need to be more mobile and aware of their surroundings to function effectively, and this is possible with increased investment. The integration of this kind of technology into the healthcare system in Taiwan will make it possible for the sick to live their lives with more dignity. After all, an advanced and quality healthcare system is an important indicator of a country’s progress.
Luo Ren-chuan is a professor of electrical engineering at National Taiwan University.
TRANSLATED BY PAUL COOPER
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