This machinery has been named the “Clinical Kiosk” (after two iterations: initially called Murray, then RoboDoc).
Clinical Kiosks, with some human guidance (currently receptionists and healthcare assistants), take recordings of height, weight (BMI), blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation and temperature without needing a qualified health practitioner to measure them.
It not only measures them, but it has the ability to communicate directly with patient management systems. With the use of QR codes the measurements are automatically recorded into patient’s notes saving time of manually entering the measurements.
So, are machines such as this going to take away jobs? At least in New Zealand, the answer is a hard no.
This was the analysis from the late Labour government regarding healthcare worker shortage in 2023:
Source: https://www.tewhatuora.govt.nz/publications/health-workforce-plan-202324/
With GP and practice nurse appointments becoming more and more difficult to access, the implementation and use of technologies such as this in everyday workflow will better utilise the limited healthcare practitioner time for improved patient outcomes.
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