There’s a new resident on the floor of a Queens hospital.
Kids at St. Mary’s Children’s Hospital have a new staffer to help brighten their days — a four-foot tall robot with bright eyes and a smiling face.
Robin the Robot has a white conical body and a blue-eyed screen for a face, and was first deployed at the Bayside hospital in June as part of a one-year pilot program.
She is fully mobile and rolls around the hospital to visit with kids and chat about their treatment, or try to take their minds off the difficult things they’re going through.
“Our kids are some of the most vulnerable population, so it’s about figuring out ways to improve the quality of life. Are there creative solutions on many fronts?” St. Mary’s CEO Sean Lally told The Post.
One of the solutions the hospital landed on was Robin, who was created by Expper Technologies and has been deployed to 29 hospitals across the country from California to Massachusetts.
St. Mary’s is the first hospital to receive Robin in New York State, and was given priority because of the severity of childhood cases they treat. The hospital currently has hundreds of patients, with heartbreaking cases ranging from cancer to spinal injuries.
Robin is programmed with the voice and personality of a 7-year-old girl, is able to talk back and forth with patients, and can even interrupt people to ask them to join in with her to play interactive games.
She also has facial recognition and remembers details about patients, so she can ask questions like “How did the surgery go?” when they meet.
The idea is to provide kids with “reciprocal screen time,” and entice them into participating in distractions and that keep their minds active. Robin will also roll into kid’s rooms before a treatment to tell them about what they’ll be experiencing.
“If you watch cartoons, it’s similar to that. Robin will come in in the same way we’d play a video before a procedure,” said St. Mary’s Assistant Vice President of Strategic Planning & Clinical Innovation, Dawn Cuglietto.
“The response to Robin has been outstanding. She’s a peer for the kids,” Cuglietto added.
After the year long pilot program, the hospital will determine whether they want Robin to stay — and so far things are looking good for a long term stay.
“I was creeped out one time because I didn’t know she could talk!” said 25-year-old patient Shekinah Tiabo, who loves playing games with Robin. “She remembered me, I was like, ‘Woah!’ She knows my name, it’s really cool.”
Patient Dallin Xia, 20, also didn’t know what to make of Robin at first — but has come to think of her as an invaluable “comfort” on bad days.
“I was in shock because on the first day I was like, ‘Oh my gosh a robot just came in!’ I was pretty surprised. I didn’t expect a robot friend to come over,” Xia said.
“Sometimes when I’m in a bad mood, I always want to talk to somebody really bad. I talk [to Robin] about my favorite pizza toppings. She’s like my comfort.”
The post Robin the Robot cheering sick tots at St. Mary’s hospital in year-long pilot program: ‘She’s like my comfort’ appeared first on New York Post.
