Trinidad and Tobago receives $1M Health Robots from India to boost digitization

The Ministry of Health of Trinidad and Tobago received eight health robots from the Indian Government at a price of US $1 million. This comes as part of the government’s ongoing move to digitize the health sector in the island nation.

The handover ceremony took place on Sunday at the Ministry of Health office located in Queen’s Park East, where the Minister of Health, Terrance DeyalSingh, said that Trinidad and Tobago is firmly committed to integrating robots and Artificial Intelligence technology into the health care system.

He outlined that digital solutions such as AI and robotics are the major driving forces behind medical practice and innovation and in light of this, the ministry has boosted its ongoing efforts of digitizing the sector.

The Minister also said that they are moving to integrate many components of the public health system, such as laboratories, pharmacies, and the PAC system, into one paperless system.

According to the information, this initiative was launched in September 2021 under the title of Bringing High and Low Technology – A Collaborative Partnership. It was started under the India UNDP fund by the Pan American Health Organisation, which features two disinfection robots and six humanoid robots.

It was also announced that the Scarborough General Hospital has been assigned one humanoid and one disinfection robots, which will be making a major impact on the hospital’s overall working.

Meanwhile, the Arima General Hospital is set to receive two humanoid and one disinfection robot, the Couva and Point Fortin hospitals will be receiving one humanoid robot each. 

One humanoid robot will be sent to the Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing, and Entrepreneurship Department, University of Trinidad and Tobago to assist them in furthering capacity and addressing issues which may arise. 

These robots will be placed in the most infectious wards and will do operations such as temperature screening, recording vital signs, and much more.

In addition to this, the representative for Trinidad and Tobago from PAHO/WHO, Dr Gabriel Vivas Francesconi disclosed that these robots were introduced into the health system back in 2020 in Rwanda, Africa. 

He also claimed that they had proven to be successful both in the hospitals as well as the airports where they had been placed and had played a crucial role in the screening of both travellers and patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Francesconi emphasised that it is being anticipated that the introduction of high technology health services robots will be an integral part of the technological transformation of the health sector in Trinidad and Tobago.