PFI-TT: Care Delivery Telehealth Drone

这一创新技术转化伙伴关系(PFI-TT)项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力将通过开发一种基于无人机的医疗保健提供设备来实现，该设备将有助于保持患有慢性病的老年人的生活质量，并允许他们在获得高质量医疗保健的同时住在家里。如果成功，护理服务远程医疗无人机预计将：i)能够对需要立即关注的医疗需求做出快速反应；ii)能够在家中提供更好、更具成本效益的质量；iii)通过减少缺席和取消医疗预约，减少医疗机构的收入损失。拟议的产品旨在应对社会挑战，如缺乏高质量的医疗保健提供者，获得医疗保健的机会，以及制度化老年人护理的财务影响。预计拟议的创新将有助于缓解社会经济差距，并为居住在农村、城市和郊区的患者提供全科医生和专科医生的机会，无论他们居住的类型是什么。拟议的项目旨在开发、测试和演示一种可行的无人机原型，该原型可以安全地为居住地的人们提供医疗保健，并在室外和室内环境中可靠地运行。这项拟议研究的目标是：i)开发具有所需软件和硬件能力的护理交付无人机原型；ii)为护理交付无人机的用户开发界面；以及iii)测试和验证护理交付无人机的原型。拟议的工作旨在解决与无人机室内导航、人机交互和远程医疗系统相关的几个技术障碍。开发用于无人机远程操作、室内定位、避障和监控智能控制的软件能力，以对抗时延和链路丢失是该项目的一些研究目标。此外，该研究将解决人-无人机/人-远程保健系统交互界面上的问题，以提高系统效率。这一结果将有助于揭示为远程医疗和其他民用应用程序设计远程操作和用户-无人机交互界面的基本原则。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project will be achieved by developing a drone-based healthcare delivery device that would help preserve the quality of life of older adults with chronic medical conditions and allow them to live in their homes while obtaining high quality healthcare. If successful, the care delivery telehealth drone is expected to: i) enable quick response to healthcare needs that need immediate attention; ii) enable delivery of improved and cost-effective quality at home, and iii) reduce loss of revenue by healthcare organizations by diminishing no-shows and cancellations of medical appointments. The proposed product is designed to address societal challenges such as shortage of quality healthcare providers, access to healthcare, and financial impact of institutionalized care of older adults. The proposed innovation is expected to help alleviate the socioeconomic disparities and provide general practitioners and specialists access to patients residing in rural, urban, and suburban areas irrespective of type of dwelling. The proposed project aims to develop, test, and demonstrate a viable drone prototype that can safely deliver healthcare to people at their place of residence and operate both in outdoor and indoor environment reliably. The goals of this proposed study are: i) developing the care delivery drone prototype with required software and hardware capabilities; ii) developing interfaces for users of the care delivery drone; and iii) testing and validating the prototype of the care delivery drone. The proposed work is intended to solve several technological barriers related to indoor navigation of drones, human-robot interaction, and telehealth systems. Developing software capabilities for teleoperation of drones, indoor localization, obstacle avoidance, and supervisory intelligent control for robustness against time delays and lost link are some of the research objectives of this project. Furthermore, the study will address issues at the interface of human-drone/human-telehealth system interaction to increase system efficiency. The results will help uncover the underlying principles of designing interfaces for teleoperation and user-drone interaction for telehealth and other civilian applications.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.