Robot Telepresence for Children in Healthcare Settings

Background: Social robots may benefit hospitalized children who feel fearful, overwhelmed, or isolated. The extent to which hospitalized children are receptive to and affected by social robots remains unclear. Robin (Expper Technologies, Inc.) is a social companion robot. This study compares validated affect scores among hospitalized children who participated in encounters with Child Life Specialists (CLSs) using either Robin or a tablet device.

Methods: This prospective mixed-methods study included hospitalized children ages 5-14 at a large academic children’s hospital from October 2020-April 2021. Patients were randomized to an hour-long visit with a CLS using either Robin or a tablet video chat interface. Patients and their parents independently reported impressions of the patient’s affect before and after the visit using the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale Short Form (PANAS-SF), which ranges from 1 to 5 with 5 being the most positive or most negative. Changes in PANAS-SF were quantified within groups using Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests and across groups using F tests. Children and parents received surveys regarding likelihood to request another CLS visit.

Results: A total of 15 hospitalized children were randomized to the Robin arm (n=10, median age 12 years) or the tablet arm (n=5, median age 9 years). Patient- and parent-reported median positive and negative affect scores all improved following the Robin encounter, whereas changes were mixed following the tablet encounter (Table 1). While these disparate patterns of affect change among Robin and tablet arms were not sufficiently powered to exclude random variation, we found the median parent-reported score of negative patient affect decreased by 33% after a Robin visit (p=0.031). Additionally, 90% of parents in the Robin arm indicated they were “extremely likely” to request another CLS visit as compared to 60% in the tablet arm.

Conclusion: Affect scores of hospitalized children improved more consistently and to a greater extent following a CLS encounter using Robin than an encounter via tablet, although the distribution of scores was not significantly different in this small study. Similarly, survey results suggest a greater level of enthusiasm among patients after interacting with Robin than with a tablet. Social robots like Robin may improve the hospital experience among pediatric patients.