By allowing EVE to handle simple, non-medical tasks, our staff had more time to focus on patient care and utilize their specialized skills, says Fredrik Warhuus, a healthcare worker at Sunnaas Hospital.
In 2019, Sunnaas Hospital, Norway’s largest specialized hospital in physical medicine and rehabilitation, initiated a project to test the robotic assistant, EVE from 1X, in healthcare. The project, named HIRO (Human Interactive Robotics for Healthcare), has explored how androids can assist healthcare workers in their daily tasks.
Sunnaas Hospital has evaluated the effectiveness of EVE in real treatment situations with its healthcare staff by comparing the performance of tasks with and without EVE’s assistance. “By allowing EVE to handle simple, non-medical tasks, our staff had more time to focus on patient care and utilize their specialized skills,” says Fredrik Warhuus, a healthcare worker at Sunnaas Hospital.
The HIRO project, supported by the Research Council and including partners such as Sunnaas Hospital, 1X developers, the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE), and the municipality of Skien, focuses on both the functionality of the robotic assistant and the interaction between robots and humans in healthcare. “Our goal is to understand the healthcare staff’s perspective on using a robotic assistant, and to identify which tasks EVE can perform most effectively,” states Bernt Øivind Børnich, CEO of 1X.