Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Robotic Assisted Ultrasonography System (ROBUST) in the Clinical Environment.

6 participating sonographers will be recruited from SGH and SKH to perform abdominal ultrasound scanning. 50 patients of average body habitus with BMI <30, abdominal circumference <102cm, of whom are able to ambulate independently will be screened for suitability during their scheduled appointments and recruited. These patients from SGH and SKH, will be referred by their radiographers for the study and will be screened by the Study Team Radiographers to obtain consent. Suitable patients for the study are determined after the scheduled abdominal scans are performed at the clinic.

Patients will undergo scanning with participating sonographers using the ROBUST after completion of their scheduled conventional scans. The same ultrasound scanner and probe type will be used on all participating patients by all sonographers.

At the end of both scans, participating sonographers will be required to complete a survey on comfort level. At the end of both scans, patients will be required to complete a survey on satisfaction level. The quality of the images from both scans will be graded by 4 readers: 2 consultant radiologists and 2 senior radiographers. A photometer will be used to ensure all graders interpret the images directly from a designated monitor under consistent lighting condition.

In the first stage, ROBUST intends to scale up to expand across SingHealth institutions via a commercial partner. Together with the team, the company will engage key opinion leaders, key stakeholders and key users of respective healthcare institutions in Singapore. The team will work closely with the identified deployment partners to develop customised solutions to suit specific requirements based on disease and type of ultrasound services provided by the healthcare institutions. If successful, the ROBUST can be deployed in all ultrasound examination rooms to benefit larger population of ultrasound radiographers in managing manpower limitation and reducing work-related musculoskeletal risks. ROBUST is designed to be universal and can integrate with existing ultrasound probe, eliminating the need for a new capital purchase.

In the second stage, ROBUST will further be deployed to other national healthcare cluster within Singapore. To achieve stage 1 and stage 2 of deployment plan, the ROBUST project team will seek endorsement from key stakeholders of healthcare clusters, Group CEOs and Group COOs from NHG and NUHS at the national level to encourage technology adoption by the respective healthcare clusters.

Following success of stage 1 and stage 2, ROBUST will be marketed to key regions in Asia and Pacific countries especially ageing population nations like Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand through strategic distribution partners. In the third stage, based on a universal platform, ROBUST can be further expanded into the surgical domain to enable assistive solution to surgeons operating in long duration. Similarly, ROBUST can help to mitigate risk of musculoskeletal disorders among surgeons and doctors.