Meet "Nursebot"

There is a crisis in health care and health care delivery, it does not really matter were you live in the world, in every country on every continent there is some form of health care / delivery crisis. On continental Africa we call it “brain drain”, an exodus of nurses and doctors to developed countries were there are shortages of medical staff and where the pay and working conditions are better than it is back home. That is not to say African countries did not have it own shortages to begin with, I remember being sick as a seven year old in Ghana, going to a hospital where I waited for over two hours along with other only to be told there was no doctor available that day. The head nurse on duty stepped up becoming the doctor for the day I remember being upset and questioning her diagnoses when set handed over her prescribed injections for me she might have been right since I lived.


We possibly live in the best of medical times there are new medicines coming out each day, to help us live longer we have chronic diseases because science has figured out how to keep us alive in spite of what ills us. As a person who is living with chronic disease I am grateful for the advancement both in medications and health technology, I am also very worried about the present state of health care and delivery. It is great that we have all the medication and technology but what is its use if we do not have enough health care professionals to help us take advantage of all the advancements. What use for example is having the latest state of the art imaging technology when there is so few qualified technician to operate the machine, which leaves a patient on a wait list.

A friend sent me a picture of the robot above with a line that said -->

“Your 2015 Birthday Present wish – this might be an essential Diabetes Sick Day management tool someday”

It’s a Robot Nurse, if the EU founded project is successful, “Nursebot” prototypes will be making their appearance in hospitals by 2010. Working in “swarms” which communicate with each other using either a wireless Local Area Network or Bluetooth, each robot will carry sensors and equipments for different jobs and assign themselves to relevant tasks. For example - Robots with thermal imaging camera could observe patients maybe during the night when there is limited nursing staff available. Project leader Thomas Sclegel of the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, said -->


“The idea is not only to have mobile robots but also a full system of integrated information terminals so the hospital is full of interaction and intelligence”

Imagine that! It is called the IWARD project.

IWARD Stands for “intelligent Robot Swarm for Attendance, Recognition, Cleaning and Delivery” it targets mainly hospitals and healthcare centres to overcome the shortages of healthcare staff – a major issue in European healthcare. Our aging society and economic pressure increase the patients-to-medics’ ratio, having an adverse effect on healthcare quality and performance. Not being able to attend all patients at the right time and not keeping the hospitals clean enough (e.g. MRSA Transmission) also increases recovery time and cost.

Happy Valentines Day

My phone was set blazed with Valentine day wishes from friends and family all over the world the first text coming in at midnight and I received the last of about twelve at around 6am, I did not think I know that many people. Saint Valentine’s day is the traditional day on which we express our love for each other, although I think we should be expressing our love every single day. Approximately one billion Valentines Day cards will be exchanged worldwide, making this the second largest card-exchanging day of the year behind Christmas. A heart shaped chocolate covered with red foil was sitting at my desk on Valentines Day morning, the company I work for put one on every employees desk wishing all a Happy Valentines Day.

Halfway across the world in my other beloved country, Ghana, my country of birth, they observed the first National Chocolate Day a day design to boost the sales of cocoa and the consumption of Ghana made chocolates. Cocoa is Ghana’s largest cash crop dubbed “Black Gold”. I think I love this new tradition that has evolved out of Valentines Day that will hopefully see the cocoa industry in the country grow and also promote local processing and manufacturing. My grandma use to always tell me that culture is alive, it lives, grows and evolve just as any other living thing and that there was a deeper reason behind everything cultural even, if I do not see it at first glance.

Ghanaians embraced the first National Chocolate Day proudly marking it with activities - chocolate producers in the country, distributed confectionery to children. A centre given the name “Chocolate Avenue was officially opened where all cocoa products as well as a cocoa museum were on display for chocolate and cocoa lovers. In the opening speech it was said -->

“The National Chocolate Day celebration was being celebrated on Valentine Day to tell the world that love was not just lust or carnality but sharing”

I have been told that The Ghana Chefs Association members took turns demonstrating the preparation of chocolate dishes on TV’s Breakfast Shows elsewhere in the capital city in Accra a chocolate pool party was also organised by one of the FM stations.

The birth of a new tradition in Ghanaian culture a country located on a continent where almost all the news covered by mainstream media is of poverty, diseases, killings and civil wars.

Happy Chocolate Day - Ghana & Happy Valentines Day - World

And through it all, she offers me protection (An angel in disguise)

Maybe I should have! I never take the flu shot and I never get sick with the flu. I hate it when someone else controls my injections, besides I do not know for sure if what I have is the flu. I have body aches accompanied by low-grade fever occasional cough that sounds horribly like a smoker’s cough but I have not smoked a day in my life. Well just the one time in Geneva, when I thought it would make me look older and get me into that cool club, I coughed so bad after my first puff the bouncer almost called an ambulance. The symptoms have been lingering for a month now some weeks are better than others are and just when I think I have gotten better it starts all over a gain. This past weeks was one of those “I thought I was all better” “maybe not”. I have not been to see a doctor because just when I say I will go I start to feel better and think it will be a waste of both of our time and money.
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My sister had an eye doctor’s appointment first thing in the morning we decided to run to the doctor’s office. Not as long a run as we do on Saturdays but it will do, about 1K into the run I looked at the time and told my sister to run ahead, she is the faster runner and we were running short on time. I rumbled through the route directions and watched as the gap between us widened, I slowed down a bit eavesdropping on these two ladies running just ahead of me till it was time to check my blood glucose. Slowing to a stop I reached into my pump pak and all I felt was my pump hmm… no meter, no glucose tab just my pump and the bolus I take to combat my Saturday morning run high. Panic sets in what to do? Run the 2.5K back home or the 2.5K to the eye doctor’s office, a flash of anger and defiant. I can clearly see it sitting on the counter. I took the roll of Dex4 tabs out of the pak to get to the meter so I could re-check my blood glucose just before walking out the door and left both vital to my life things behind.
Angry and tired with this whole lifestyle, knowing very well the anger will do nothing to help I kept running forward stupidly challenging diabetes as if I were a teenager testing my boundaries. I reached my destination thinking to myself how childish can you really be. My sensible personality was asking my teenage rebel one, it was still early and the pharmacy in the building was not yet open. I knew there was another pharmacy in the building across the street; I love that pharmacy because they have a dedicated area and counter for diabetes. So I made my way to that one I at least remembered to bring $5.00 to get water on our way back, I could at least get something I can use to treat a hypoglycaemia if I feel one coming on. I entered the store and went straight to the diabetes counter, I looked at the name badge pinned to the woman and it had the letters RN at the end my eyes filled with tears. I tried to fight the tears as I told her I left the house for a run without my meter or glucose tabs. What meter do you have strips at home for? She asked, I told her I do not have money to buy a new meter she smiled saying “don’t look so pitiful, you were out running that is a good thing” “How are you felling now” I told her I was feeling OK on signs of hypoglycaemia, when I said those words I could not control the tears.

She reached behind the counter and gave me a new meter told me to set it up while she gets me some strips. I tested in at 5.4mmol/l (97) she also gave me a roll of glucose tabs and filled out a promotional give away form. One of these days, I have to go back as the adult I am with a thank you card for her.