Healthcare Robotics Featured At RoboBusiness Conference And Exposition

Today's technology advancements provide many opportunities to create automation and workflow improvements within the healthcare industry. The RoboBusiness 2009 conference program features a dedicated ‘RoboMedicus' track with sessions focused on Healthcare Robotics and Healthcare Automation to help identify business opportunities in this important and growing market. RoboBusiness Conference and Exposition 2009 (www.robobusiness.com) takes place April 15-16 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

"Healthcare robotics technology is viewed by leaders in business, academia and government as a key means to provide better healthcare services while reducing costs", notes Dan Kara, President of Robotics Trends, the producer of the RoboBusiness Conference and Exposition. "As such, we are very excited to incorporate into the RoboBusiness event a series of sessions dedicated to healthcare robotics, providing business development professionals and investors, along with the broader academic community, with an overview of the leading trends in healthcare robotics, particularly as they relate to business development and commercialization opportunities."

RoboBusiness Conference Attendees will learn about the latest advancements in healthcare robotics in these dedicated RoboMedicus sessions:

Finding the Robot's Place in the OR: Surgi-Mimetic Robots Versus Robo-Mimetic Surgery
This talk proposes applying the lessons learned from manufacturing to surgical robot evolution. While we cannot redesign the human body, we can reinvent surgical techniques and tools to fit those capabilities at which robots excel – precise, small-scale motions; high-bandwidth motion compensation; and integration with multi-modal sensing systems. We can also adapt robot design to fit the constraints of the human body. This session will provide examples in applying these principles to the design of robots and tools for beating-heart intracardiac surgery. Presented by: Pierre Dupont, Professor, Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, Boston University

Transforming Medical Robotic Technologies with High Precision Drive Solutions
Advances in drive technology allow medical devices to become increasing smaller, as well as extremely accurate and highly efficient. In this session attendees will learn of specific advances in precision drive technology and how that technology is opening up new opportunities in the medical robotics market. Examples of innovative surgical, educational and rehabilitation robotics applications where high precision microdrives provide reliable solutions will be discussed. Presented by: Joe Martino, Engineer, Maxon Motors

Socially Interactive Robots in Therapeutic Play
Socially interactive robots are finding increasing utility - beyond the service and entertainment domains - in child psychology research and in therapeutic practice for developmental disorders like autism. Such robots can help us study human social development while serving to facilitate social interaction between children, peers, and caregivers. In this session, Marek Michalowski (Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute & BeatBots LLC) will discuss the field of child-robot interaction research and therapeutic play, focusing on efforts to productize therapeutic robotics products, including his own work with the robot Keepon. Presented by: Marek P. Michalowski, Co-Founder & President, BeatBots LLC

Rehabilitation Robotics
Until quite recently, the use of robotics in healthcare has largely been limited to teleoperated minimally invasive surgery procedures or in support of surgical procedures. However, robotics technology is now being applied to many different areas of healthcare, including physical therapy and rehabilitation. With traditional physical therapy, many therapists often work with one patient, to support their limbs and help them move. It is now possible to use robotic technology to perform the same rehabilitative tasks using less people while providing a more consistent and lengthy training regimen, while tracking patient's progress with great precision. The result is a better level of care at reduced cost for the service provider. In this session, attendees will learn about recent advances in rehabilitation robotics, including quantified results of the approach and insights into future developments. Presented by: Charles Remsberg, CEO, Hocoma Inc

Improving Healthcare Outcomes & Reducing Costs through Medical Automation
Healthcare is becoming more complex, costs are skyrocketing and in many areas it is approaching collapse. Thankfully, there are ways in which automation technology, including robotic technology, can be used to meet healthcare's many challenges. In this session, attendees will learn how robotics and automation technologies are impacting all aspects of the healthcare industry. Discussion will include how technologies can impact the needs of clinicians at the various venues of healthcare delivery from the most acute (e.g., accident or battleground) to the least (e.g., home and ambulatory). Needs at all venues of healthcare delivery will be solved by incorporating capabilities provided by many technologies, including surgical robotics, sensing, MEMS, imaging, remote monitoring and software among others to diagnose and effect an appropriate therapy. The ways in which the robotics community can participate in the healthcare market, along with the impact that future robotic and automation products will have on healthcare industry will be discussed. Presented by: Martin Sklar, President, Automated Medical Instruments

Assistive Robotics: Making the Leap from the Lab to Commercial Development
Despite over two decades of development in academic labs, few assistive robots have been commercially developed and sold to end users. This talk will examine the market for assistive robotics and present recent developments from academic labs. Commercially available assistive robots will be discussed, as will barriers to development and opportunities in the domain. Presented by: Holly Yanco, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Computer Science Department, University of Massachusetts Lowell

RoboBusiness has garnered support from the world's leading robotics vendors, associations and media channels including the Center for Integration of Medicine & Innovative Technology (CIMIT). CIMIT fosters and nurtures interdisciplinary collaboration among world-class experts in medicine, science and engineering, in concert with industry and government, to rapidly improve patient care. A non-profit consortium of Boston area teaching hospitals and engineering schools, CIMIT provides innovators with resources to explore, develop and implement novel technological solutions for today's most urgent healthcare problems.

Complete event information and registration are available at www.robobusiness.com.

About Robotics Trends, Inc.
Robotics Trends, a division of EH Publishing, Inc., is the world's first integrated media firm serving the burgeoning personal, service and mobile robotics marketplace. Robotics Trends services their clientele through two major business divisions:

• Robotics Trends Publishing, which produces www.roboticstrends.com, an online news, information and analysis portal focused on business and technology trends for people who build, buy, invest in, and seek to understand the personal, service, mobile and military robotics market; and Robotics Business Review, a subscription media product providing primary research, analysis and market observations for the robotics and intelligent systems industries.
• Robotics Trends Events, which produces the RoboDevelopment Conference and Exposition (www.robodevelopment.com), RoboBusiness Conference and Exposition (www.robobusiness.com) and the RoboNexus Conference and Exposition (www.robonexus.com).

About EH Publishing
EH Publishing, Inc. is the information leader and resource for the home electronic industry. Serving the technology and construction markets, EH Publishing, Inc. reaches more than half a million home electronic professionals, builders and consumers worldwide. Founded in 1994, EH Publishing, Inc. has defined, cultivated and raised awareness of the $15B electronic/installed home industry through its products, which include print publications, on-line publications, trade shows and market studies. EH Publishing, Inc. is the industry's source for home technology information and market analysis, with the targeted print and on-line publications: Electronic House, Home Electronic Ideas, CE Pro, CE Pro Retailing, ChannelPro, TecHome Builder, Live Sound, and targeted tradeshows: Electronic House Expo (EHX), Worship Facilities Conference & Expo (WFX), RoboDevelopment Conference and Exposition, and RoboBusiness Conference and Exposition. For more information, visit www.ehpub.com.

SOURCE: The RoboBusiness