UBC researchers create robot to help sooth pain of neonatal intensive-care-unit babies
Nothing soothes a newborn’s pain like the tender touch of a loving parent, but researchers at the University of B.C. hope their new robot might help sometimes.
The white-metal device is about the size of a standard pillow. On top of it rests a silicon mat wrapped in Gore-Tex fabric, meant to feel like a parent’s soft touch. When the robot is turned on, its platform gently rocks up-and-down while playing the sound of a beating heart, both programmed to match the rate of a parent’s own breaths and heartbeat.
Holsti was also lead scientist for the robot’s first randomized controlled trial to evaluate whether it reduced pain in premature babies at B.C. Women’s Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit . The researchers then looked at how the babies’ faces and hands changed, as well as their heart rates and brain-oxygen levels.Holsti stressed that the robot isn’t a replacement for human touch, but could be helpful in many cases. Her hope is that it could eventually be available for all premature babies.
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