AUTHOR=Sierra Marín Sergio D. , Gomez-Vargas Daniel , Céspedes Nathalia , Múnera Marcela , Roberti Flavio , Barria Patricio , Ramamoorthy Subramanian , Becker Marcelo , Carelli Ricardo , Cifuentes Carlos A. TITLE=Expectations and Perceptions of Healthcare Professionals for Robot Deployment in Hospital Environments During the COVID-19 Pandemic JOURNAL=Frontiers in Robotics and AI VOLUME=8 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/robotics-and-ai/articles/10.3389/frobt.2021.612746 DOI=10.3389/frobt.2021.612746 ISSN=2296-9144 ABSTRACT=

Several challenges to guarantee medical care have been exposed during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Although the literature has shown some robotics applications to overcome the potential hazards and risks in hospital environments, the implementation of those developments is limited, and few studies measure the perception and the acceptance of clinicians. This work presents the design and implementation of several perception questionnaires to assess healthcare provider's level of acceptance and education toward robotics for COVID-19 control in clinic scenarios. Specifically, 41 healthcare professionals satisfactorily accomplished the surveys, exhibiting a low level of knowledge about robotics applications in this scenario. Likewise, the surveys revealed that the fear of being replaced by robots remains in the medical community. In the Colombian context, 82.9% of participants indicated a positive perception concerning the development and implementation of robotics in clinic environments. Finally, in general terms, the participants exhibited a positive attitude toward using robots and recommended them to be used in the current panorama.