Abstract
For the last two decades the European Commission (EC), and in particular
the
Directorate General Information Society and Media, has been strongly
supporting the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
in healthcare. ICT
is an enabling technology which can provide various solutions in the
healthcare sector, ranging from electronic patient records and health
information networks to intelligent
prosthetics and robotised surgery. The EC funded the present study with the
aim to investigate the potential of robotics in healthcare. Robotics for
healthcare is an emerging field which is expected to grow in the face of
demographic change (ageing), expected shortages of healthcare personnel, calls
for improving quality of life for the elderly and disabled, and the need for
even higher quality care, for example high precision surgery. All these
factors stimulate innovation
in the domain of Robotics for Healthcare. Several programs and networks
dedicated to research on robotics are already focusing part of their efforts
on applications in healthcare.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publisher | European Commission EC |
| Number of pages | 181 |
| Publication status | Published - 2008 |
| MoE publication type | D4 Published development or research report or study |