Experiment in Tallinn Healthcare College

Tallinn Health College (Tallinna Tervishoiu Kõrgkool) is our long-term partner that integrated telepresence robots into their teaching scenarios and daily routine, therefore the choice of the location of the next PYNT project meeting, hands-on session, and an intriguing social experiment was obvious.

As PYNT is essentially an international project, we invited our colleagues from other universities to participate in this event, including Lappeenranta University, University of Linz, Eindhoven University, and several others. The meeting consisted of two main parts: the first one and the second one. Joosep Parts, the graduate of TalTech cybersecurity curriculum made a presentation on the topic that definitely deserves more attention globally: privacy concerns and security issues of telepresence robots. Let me give you a hint here: in contrast to teleconferencing software, it is not required for the second party to accept the incoming call from the remotely located robot’ operator.

The experiment itself unfolded in various scenarios, including the situations, where the student make manipulations with the patient (a dummy in our case) monitored and guided by the telepresented instructor, or helping people navigate in an unfamiliar large building – the situation very similar to the one elderly people find themselves in during hospital visits.

In addition to that, the experiment provided insights into the societal implications of telepresence robots and the potential of their usage in medicine and medicine related education.