Strange World: Taiwan’s First AI Nurse Joins Hospital Staff

A Taiwanese hospital has added a robot nurse to relieve the strain on its overworked medical staff.

The AI nurse, also known as Norabot, was created by tech behemoths Foxconn and NVIDIA and is currently supporting real nurses by handling the most repetitious and physically taxing tasks.

The drastic action follows the World Health Organization’s (WHO) warning that burnout and excessive workloads will cause a shortage of approximately 4.5 million nurses in the upcoming years.

At Taichung Hospital, Norabot is already doing duties including drug delivery, fetal health monitoring, and carrying supplies for wound care.

Foxconn claims that the robot can reduce a nurse’s burden by as much as 30%.

NVIDIA’s Holoscan and Jetson Orin platforms for real-time processing, the FoxBrain smart management system, and Isaac for Healthcare for virtual training are among the state-of-the-art tools included with the bot. It even incorporates technology from the robotics-proficient Kawasaki Heavy Industries.

Additionally, Foxconn has introduced a comprehensive range of AI healthcare solutions powered by NVIDIA, including AI models that track vital signs and digital twins that assist in hospital layout planning.

“Having a robotic assistant reduces nurses’ physical fatigue and frees up more time to focus on patient care, especially during visiting hours or night shifts when staff are limited,” stated Shu-Fang Liu, the hospital’s deputy director of nursing.

Even more sophisticated features, such several languages, facial recognition, and physical support to aid move or assist patients, are anticipated in future iterations of Norabot.