Nurses at Seton Medical Center Austin Welcome Robot Named Poli With Open Arms
Nurses at Seton Medical Center Austin in Austin, Texas, will soon have their own special, robotic assistant named Poli. Poli, designed by University of Texas professor Andrea Thomaz, will help nurses with basic tasks, but will not have any direct contact with patients.
According to Thomaz, who is also the CEO of a company called Diligent Droids, Poli is designed to help take some of the burden off of nurses when it comes to certain monotonous tasks, such as tracking down a wheelchair or making a trip to the supply closet.
For Jessica Meinhardt-Salazar, a registered nurse at Seton’s 38th Street location, Poli is a welcomed addition to the hospital.
“A lot of our time is spent running from one of the halls to our supply room,” said Meinhardt-Salazar, via My Statesman. “Having a robot … in our unit able to do a lot of those activities … frees up time for us to spend in direct patient care.”
Poli was on display in front of the media on Tuesday, December 20. The robot reportedly analyzed a shelf of medical supplies, and then said that it needed some socks, before pulling a pair from a bin and making its way down the hall.
Poli’s programming is still being worked on, and the belief is that it might be another year before the robot is ready to work in the hospital full time. Thomaz said that more testing and research will be conducted next year to make sure that Poli is ready to work on its own.
“Over 2017 we’re going to be bringing (in) this prototype and the second version of it that we’re working on currently on a more regular basis … until Poli is ready to be here autonomously.”



