Student research placement focusses on robotics in rehabilitation
“My name is Christie Hamon, I am a final year medical student from the University of Dundee who has recently completed a research placement at Edinburgh Napier University with Dr Fiona Maclean as part of the robotics scoping review being carried out with Professor Alison Porter-Armstrong and Dr Ciara Ryan. The focus of the robotics scoping review was surrounding robotics in rehabilitation and identifying potential benefits vs barriers of this alongside how feasible robotics is for rehabilitation and the ways in which it can be implemented in practice.
I chose this placement as I have real interest in the robotics field and how the future of robotics may apply to healthcare in rehabilitation but also how this can be applied to medicine as a whole. When conducting this research, I have found interesting results in which robotics can be utilised to save time for therapists, provide higher dosage therapies where humans may not be able to, increase engagement of rehabilitation, allowance of easier analysis of movement, and allow flexibility of where rehabilitation may be carried out. Although alongside this there are certain barriers to robotics such as cost, lack of education around the use, adaptability for patient abilities, time for implementation, attitudes towards the use of this type of technology and ultimately the inability to replace human social connection. In consideration of these benefits and barriers I noticed it was also important for clear education on the robot making it easy to implement, trained therapists being present to guide the patient and ensure robotic treatment is suited to abilities, and ability to modify the robot to the patient’s needs. This knowledge is extremely useful to me going forward in my career to identify where technology can assist humans in care in a way which may ease healthcare burden.
My time spent with the team has also been extremely valuable in building my research knowledge by being able to work alongside experts in research and listening to the techniques which increase the robustness and reliability of research being carried out. I will use these skills learnt to build on my critical thinking and data analysis in future to evaluate scientific evidence. Particularly working through a scoping review for the first time has allowed me to expand on my abilities in search, selecting and synthesizing relevant research papers. In doing so I feel this will greatly assist me being a medical student to make evidence-based decisions and stay up to date in current advancements within medical science.
During my final week of placement, I attended a tour of the National Robotarium and the continuing professional development day on the right to rehabilitation for people living with dementia. This was an invaluable experience for me gaining an insight into the perspectives of different allied health clinicians in relation to their contribution to dementia care and ways in which this can be improved in future. We had speakers from Alzheimer’s Scotland and Active voice dementia to hear the lived experiences of those diagnosed with dementia alongside Brain Health Scotland where I was able to learn about different ways in which dementia can be prevented through educating patients. I also had the opportunity to listen to speakers from the different allied health professions to hear about their experience of managing patients with dementia and education on the various resources there are for patients. I will take this knowledge going forward for the rest of education and my career in order to ensure the best care is provided for all patients including those with dementia and that I am able to provide and utilise all support available through being educated on the different resources and working closely with the allied health professions.”
