University of Colorado students get inside look at medical robotics, technology of the future
In Colorado, there are already robots that deliver food, map out tunnels and even diffuse bombs. The role of robots in our daily lives seems to know no bounds. The medical field is another space where robots and humans are already coexisting in the state, and there remains a bright future for new technology in this field.
Recently, CBS Colorado got to take a closer look at robotics in Broomfield that could change how people receive their medicine and how hospitals get what they need in operating rooms.
Swisslog Healthcare's manufacturing is based in Broomfield with products that it says are already in thousands of health systems worldwide. In honor of "National Robotics Week," the facility invited students from University of Colorado Boulder to get an inside look at how it all works.
John Kennedy is the director of customer engagement and training at Swisslog Healthcare. On the tour, Kennedy spoke about their latest technology that helps package and distribute medicine to patients and other supplies doctors need.
"This machine packages one per second roughly, so 3,600 doses an hour," said Kennedy regarding one of their machines that helps organize pharmaceuticals. "We are delivering drugs to nursing units. We're delivering units of blood to the OR's. If a patient needs blood in a surgery, they'll tube it up there."
One of the students on tour included Jack Bernard, a CU sophomore mechanical engineering student.
"[I] like learning about the industry and like checking out different areas to see where I might want to work," Bernard told CBS Colorado.
Students such as Bernard hope to use their degree to advance medical technology after experiencing personal family struggles with aging tech.
"I kind of realized that I want to help people with my degree, because my grandma had this thing where her insulin pump wasn't working, and she had to go to the hospital. And I was like, 'Oh, that's it. I want to do medical,'" Bernard explained.
Swisslog Healthcare hopes the tour expands local options for future engineers to learn about the future of medical technology manufactured in Colorado.
"We do health care automation, and it's really a great way for us to expose people to what we do, and also opens our eyes to, 'Hey, they may want to work here one day,'" Kennedy said.
