At San Roque University Hospitals, challenges such as the digitalization of health services, artificial intelligence and robotic surgery, as well as the implementation of new hybrid operating rooms, are being successfully addressed.
Artificial intelligence and smart medical devices are key to a medicine that aspires to greater personalization and efficiency, helping to streamline processes, facilitate the monitoring of chronic patients, help in the prevention of diseases and provide support for clinical decisions.
Virtual reality and AI in San Roque University Hospitals: Emoternity Project
In 2020, San Roque University Hospitals in Maspalomas joined the development of the Emoternity Project, completed last year 2023. This system is technically made up of a Platform based on Virtual Reality (VR), voice assistants and machine learning (ML) techniques. that allow reducing social isolation and emotional deterioration in elderly people in hospital centers.
The objectives of this project are to reduce the prevalence of anxiety and depression, which according to the latest studies are very high in the elderly population, improving connectivity, the social network, as well as the inclusion of older people. Through this project, San Roque University Hospitals in Maspalomas has achieved:
- Have a system that allows information to be shared about the physical, social and mental health status of older people with family members, caregivers and even social care systems.
- Provide a therapy program for older people based on the Life Review technique through new technologies to improve the quality of life and avoid isolation in older people.
Patients/users, family members and hospital health professionals participate in the system. The platform is made up of various interrelated tools.
- Voice Assistant in the roomhospitable n: Communication between the platform and residents is carried out through a virtual assistant, based on a voice interface, which reminds patients of the events available on the social network and tells them when to access the virtual environments. In addition, the virtual assistant speaks with the elderly person to obtain input parameters (the elderly person's voice) for the artificial intelligence module, which through Deep Learning algorithms determines the user's mood. Depending on the users' mood, the virtual assistant can recommend access to a virtual environment that improves their emotional situation, using the Virtual Reality Module (VR Module). The voice assistant is installed on Android tablets available in patient rooms.
- Professional App: The healthcare professional has an app available to review the results of the questions that the voice assistant asks the patient to determine their mood, and can also see a history of the results. From the app, the professional can refer the patient to the VR Module for activation or relaxation.
- VR module: The System has a VR device that has VR Glasses, and that through a virtual Avatar interacts with the patient, offering them the possibility of playing games, watching videos, photos or other content that the professional has prescribed. The VR Module is deployed in a specific room for it.
- Emoternity Portal: The project has a Portal that allows family members to interact with users, adding events to their agenda (birthdays, visits, etc.), multimedia content... In addition, family members can be up to date with how the patient is progressing at a level emotional.
Creation of the robotic surgery unit
Robotic surgery represents one of the latest innovations in medicine and aims to respond to all those patient needs that could not be solved before.
The collaboration between San Roque University Hospitals and GUA Cabinet of Urology and Andrology has made it possible for private healthcare in Gran Canaria to have the HugoTM robot, incorporated into HUSR in Maspalomas since July 2023. It is the first system of its type in the archipelago, and allows minimally invasive surgeries to be performed. It guarantees a more precise, safe and directed intervention towards the area on which action must be taken.
The level of technological development of the robotic surgery unit has all the quality guarantees, since it is equipped with highly sophisticated devices such as: the camera with high definition recording capacity and artificial intelligence, the sending of images in real time for interpretation during the intervention, the 4K screen with 3D visualization to improve precision and tissue differentiation, and the innovative control of controls, so that the robotic arm is directed by simply moving the wrist, in a more intuitive way and sure.
