The following is a guest article by Winston Leung, Senior Manager at QNX, a division of BlackBerry
Robotics technology is experiencing rapid growth, with the global market projected to more than triple in value by 2030. Its impact is expanding across nearly every major industry, including healthcare. While the greater integration of robotics in healthcare shows significant long-term benefits, the sector remains cautiously optimistic. To better understand current attitudes and adoption levels of robotics, QNX surveyed business leaders from a range of industries, including healthcare, across North America and around the globe.
Healthcare is Behind in Robotics Adoption Despite Rampant Labor Shortages
Across global industries, the survey found that 50% of business leaders say that their organization is utilizing robotics. However, when looking at the healthcare industry specifically, this number decreases to 40%. In North America, organizations fall slightly behind with 45% of decision makers across various industries utilizing robotics, with 43% of North American healthcare respondents citing robotics use.
Despite these relatively low adoption rates of robotics in healthcare, the industry is under increasing pressure to embrace robotics more fully, especially as it faces widespread labor shortage, high burnout rates, and an aging patient population. These workforce challenges are top of mind for healthcare leaders, with 74% of North American healthcare respondents identifying labor shortages as a key factor influencing their decision to implement robotics, compared to 66% of respondents across other industries. While 52% of healthcare leaders reported plans to adopt robotics, only 11% intend to do so within the next year, and 28% have no specified timeline. Given the urgency, what’s holding them back?
Security and Data Concerns Present Significant Hurdles
Security remains a major concern for healthcare leaders, as the majority (63%) of North American respondents cite risks associated with robotics, which is not surprising due to the sensitive nature of health-related data. In fact, security and data protection ranked among the top three contributing factors of this sector’s level of trust in robotics, alongside safety and risk mitigation, and proven reliability and performance.
To address these concerns, security must be a foundational element of any robotics implementation. Organizations should prioritize robotics systems that are safety and security-certified and deploy secure-by-default designs to help ensure robust data protection. This includes the use of a microkernel-based foundational software to minimize kernel code to reduce the attack surface for malicious actors to compromise the system.
Trust in Robotics Exists – but Varies Widely by Task
While 74% of North American healthcare leaders expressed moderate to full trust in robotics for performing essential functions, only 11% shared full confidence in the technology’s ability to operate autonomously and consistently. Trust is significantly higher for more routine or mundane functions like material handling (72%) and logistics or delivery (73%). However, confidence drops when it comes to performing patient-facing tasks like customer service (57%) or medical procedures (56%).
This disparity highlights how trust in robotics is closely tied to perceived risk and complexity – tasks that involve human well-being or emotional intelligence tend to demand a higher threshold of trust, which many believe current robotic systems have yet to meet.
Robot-Assisted Medical Procedures
The potential opportunity for human-robot collaboration in healthcare is especially promising in the realm of medical procedures. Robot-assisted surgeries have been shown to improve long-term patient outcomes by enhancing surgical precision and reducing human error. In fact, more high-demand medical specialties like orthopedics commonly utilize robotics for total hip or knee replacement. Robotic systems are able to provide the level of precision necessary to ensure the implant is properly placed, which can increase joint performance. 67% of survey respondents expressed at least some comfort working alongside robots, suggesting that, with the right framing, broader acceptance of robot-assisted care could be within reach.
The survey findings clearly demonstrate the patient-centric intentions of North American healthcare leaders, as the main factors influencing their decision to implement robotics include meeting customer expectations (82%), the need for enhanced quality or consistency (86%), and improved safety (85%). Taking patient outcomes into account, it seems the industry must gain a deeper trust in emerging robotics technology before the benefits can become more widespread.
As technology continues to rapidly advance, so will the capabilities of robotics in healthcare. Regulatory bodies like the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) are increasingly releasing new guidelines to support safe and effective robotic integration across industries, including healthcare, underscoring the staying power of this technology. The message is clear: robotics is here to stay, and now is the time for the healthcare sector to fully embrace its potential.
About Winston Leung
Winston Leung is a seasoned innovation strategist with over a decade of experience advancing technology and driving business development in public and private sectors across North America and Asia. Specializing in transformative industries like transportation and robotics, he has led initiatives in autonomous, connected, and electric vehicles, developing policies and strategies to support their adoption. Winston’s notable achievements include spearheading Canada’s first connected vehicle testbed and guiding go-to-market strategies for emerging technologies, including quantum, 5G, and more. Currently a Senior Manager at QNX, Winston delivers strategies and thought leadership in functional safety, real-time performance, and reliability for embedded systems across robotics, medical, and transportation sectors.
No comments:
Post a Comment