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Published on 2024-12-07
The Virgen del Rocío Hospital in Seville and Honda Research Institute in Japan are developing technology to improve the lives of children with cancer thanks to Haru, a companion and friend robot that assists in the educational and emotional development of these minors undergoing oncology treatment.
According to the hospital center, the Haru robot is designed to integrate into four daily scenarios of children in the pediatric oncology unit. In the first scenario, Haru will support neuropsychologists in conducting emotional and cognitive assessments.
In the second scenario, the robot will provide entertainment, cognitive stimulation, and interactive, personalized educational support to the children, also connecting them to their educational centers or friends outside the hospital or other hospitals.
In the third scenario, Haru will coexist with the young patients, providing emotional support and helping to fill the long hours in the hospital. Fourthly, Haru will offer assistance to doctors, acting as a mediator who helps explain procedures in a fun and approachable manner.
These areas are closely related and cover a large part of the children's daily experience, improving their well-being both clinically and emotionally. A key example of this improvement is seen in the application of anxiety tests, essential for evaluating the emotional state of children throughout oncology treatment.
INCREASE IN ASSESSMENTS
Currently, the neuropsychological team at the Seville hospital conducts around 360 annual evaluations of the 120 children diagnosed each year, at three critical moments: at the beginning, in the central phase, and at the end of treatment.
With Haru's help, this number will significantly increase, rising from 360 to 750 annual evaluations, as each child will be assessed during each admission for treatment.
In follow-up consultations, which take place during the 10 years following treatment, Haru will also make a considerable difference, allowing anxiety assessments to increase from 100 to 2,750, thus ensuring attention to all children in follow-up. As for the evaluation of survivors, it will increase from the current 50 evaluations to 1,000.
EMOTIONAL STATE
In total, regarding the evaluation of anxiety levels alone, Haru will enable 4,500 annual evaluations, compared to the current 510. These advancements will also be applied to other neurocognitive evaluation tests that are already being developed for Haru.
This robot will not only mediate in conducting emotional and cognitive tests but also provide entertainment, educational support, and help health professionals explain medical procedures in a friendly and understandable way for children. Additionally, Haru will be capable of periodically monitoring vital signs.
This project, which is already implemented in its pediatric oncology plant, was carried out in collaboration with the Spanish Association for the Effects of Cancer Treatment (AEetc), the Seville-based artificial intelligence company 4i, the Computational Linguistics Research Group Julietta at the University of Seville, the Robotics Group of Pablo de Olavide University, and IDMind (Portugal).
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