One of the biggest challenges surrounding healthcare in the U.S is timely and affordable access to doctors.
Often falling under the umbrella of remote or personalized medicine, a number of researchers are investigating the use of sensors, instrumentation, and wireless components that patients can use at home to provide the data needed for assessing individual health without the need for dedicated appointment times and spaces.
Adding to this mix is a project from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. Their palm-sized personal robot, dubbed SkinBot, is designed to crawl over the body to inspect the skin for signs of cancer or other maladies. The SkinBot is equipped with examination tools and the ability to log data and track changes over time, alerting doctors of any concerns.
The wearable robot moves using suction cup-like feet modeled after leeches. These feet will contain metal rings with sensors for picking up bio-signals like heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle activity, which can also be archived and shared.
Next steps for the MIT team include refining the design to make patients more comfortable with the robot’s appearance, and enhancing the autonomous navigation capabilities so the robot can be used in more practical ways.
Artem Dementyev, the leader of the research team, feels that commercialization of the SkinBot is about five years away.