Previously, when people imagined robots in the field of medicine, they would have thought of a science fiction thriller; cold metal limbs of and blinking lights instead of human doctors. Now we zoom to 2025, and it is not imagination anymore. With human-assisted robotic arms directing scalpels down to the millimeter, and autonomous delivery machines cutting down on the work nurses must do, it is not only possible but, in fact, healthcare robotics is opening up a brand new book of rules about how care is administered.
A Robotic Touch of Surgical Precision
Any surgeon that has worked with the da Vinci Surgical System will tell you that it does not obviate skill, but enhances it. Indeed, the number of procedures performed with the help of robotic surgery all over the globe amounted to more than 1.8 million in 2024 as compared to only 1.2 million in 2021, as shown in the numbers provided by Intuitive Surgical. Such systems, which can be priced upwards of 2 million dollars are used to enable surgeons to undertake complicated procedures through small incisions-cutting pain, blood loss, and short recovery periods.
More modular and portable, such as the Hugo RAS by Medtronic and Versius by CMR Surgical, are implemented by hospitals, such as Mayo Clinic, the Mount Sinai, or Cleveland Clinic. According to a recent JAMA article, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Mount Sinai, Dr. Elena Martinez, says, the robot provides her with the dexterity of the open-heart surgery, but with the advantages of the minimally invasive approach. It has altered my way of doing things.”
And it is not only large urban hospitals. At one point a rural hospital in Tennessee noted that the post-op complications were reduced by 30 percent after the introduction of robotic-assisted surgery in both urology and gynecology cases.
Bedside Free Support
Devices and tech make headlines but what is happening behind the scene is just as revolutionary as robotic surgery. Here are TUG and Moxi autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) carrying drugs, samples, and linens down hotel hallways with Nightmare-before-Christmas-precision creepiness. Aethon constructed TUG which is now used in more than 140 American hospitals, and it supposedly saves about 15 per cent of every shift of nurses.
Such robots navigate via LiDAR, they read obstacles, open the doors of an elevator wirelessly, and they wait without panicking or running at the crossroads until the human traffic clears. Within the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, TUGs have been connected with the EMR of the hospital to order priorities as per patient acuities, which has been identified to have contributed to increased accuracy of delivery as well as reduced fatigue in nurses.
So consider these robots as the circulatory system of a hospital without the ability to take a break or have a cup of coffee.
Telepresence in a Post-Pandemic World
We all remember the webcam checks in grainy quality of 2020. These are a thing of the past. In the present times, telepresence robots such as VGo and Double 3 travel the ICU floors and assist living facilities and remote clinics in areas where doctors are not readily available. These are not a glorified iPads on wheels, this is a mobile platform of diagnostics.
Consider BeamPro, which was applied in the case of the COVID-19 Delta wave in Mumbai. The in-hospital specialists in London used live assessments of patients in ICU where they controlled the robot to bedside remotely, communicated with the staff and viewed medical monitoring equipment- all over one interface. The Lancet head report showed that these interventions added 40 percent to remote consultation efficiency and reduced cross-infection risk by large margin.
According to Dr. Kwame Boateng, one of the advocates of telemedicine in Kenya, telepresence robots help him make his patients forget about the need to make this or that decision between location and excellent care. That is decreasing.”
Robotic Rehabilitation and the Human Comeback
As soon as you witness the first step of a person with a spinal cord injury, who first learns to walk with help of robots, you feel all emotional. Such systems as ReWalk, EksoNR, and Lokomat are now popular in almost all European and Asian rehab centers. These exoskeletons enable the patient to reeducate their brains and musculature by reinstituting their power to walk, grasp and balance, albeit gradually.
Patients tested in the Samsung Medical Center in Seoul (South Korea) exposed to Lokomat Pro in a controlled rehab program had stroke patients who underwent a Lokomat Pro treatment have their rate of recovery twice as quick as traditional approaches in six months. In the meantime, Cyberdyne HAL suit that assists elderly mobility and Parkinson is also becoming a sensation in Japan.
One of the experiences that has remained with a Boston based therapist in the Spaulding Rehab was when we had a 42 year old construction worker who was paralyzed by falling and during the birthday party of his son he walked across the room on his own with the help of his exosuit. It is not technology. That’s magic.”
The Ethical Tangle and Financial Divide
And all this breakthrough raises an awkward question, who will have access? Sophisticated surgical robots are often million-dollar machines and a majority of the rehab exosuits are too expensive to be sold below one hundred thousand. Not only are telepresence units typically priced at a minimum of 5,000 dollars, but they are a product most underfunded public health systems cannot access.
There is also ethics of data collection. When robots check vitals, record video and move to sensitive spaces, questions of consent, privacy, and security are no longer theoretical. In 2017, a security breach in an autonomous delivery fleet affected one of the hospitals in Canada, disclosing confidential patient routing information to authorities in the industry.
This is where we are at a crossroad. Assuming that robotic care is the future, how can we make sure that it does not turn into another luxury good?
Final Takeaway: Machines That Heal, Humans Who Decide
So, here is a warning, robots do not come to substitute doctors. They came to widen the capacity of doctors. Healthcare robotics is one of the few areas where technology can be used in an extremely empathetic way to make the process safer, care more standardized, and results more human.
This transformation however needs to be managed well. The policies must focus on the accessibility, safety, and the dignity of care. Since robots might possess the hands but it is people who possess the heart.
Are machines to take over the hospitals of the future? Maybe. However, the most of them will be guided by sympathy.