Robot paramedic carries out CPR in ambulance in UK | Hacker News Reader

Robot paramedic carries out CPR in ambulance in UK

eandt.theiet.org

29 pointsneverminder16 comments

The headline is misleading. Mechanical CPR devices have been utilised for years in the UK. The major LUCAS clinical trial [1] was run in the UK.

The ‘first’ relates to the version used: LUCAS 3. This has no performance difference but adds ‘smart’ features via Bluetooth. This is also misleading, as the LUCAS 3 has been available in other services.

[1] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...

Yeah, "misleading" is generous here. It's flat out wrong. Perhaps this article was also written by a "robot".

Yes, but it makes for new publications ! That's the important thing, right? Right?

Not only that, the article isn't about the robot carrying out anything. This is about the ambulances starting to carry this particular machine, not about the machine actually having been deployed.

Ok, we've de-firsted the title above.

I don't know anything about Bluetooth security but I'm assuming adding it to a lifesaving device isn't necessarily an improvement?

While not headline-worthy I'm not aware of which definition of "robot" CPR machines are supposed to fall. They're pretty well studied at this point. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoPulse

As a professor of robotics once told me, "If it doesn't work (yet), it's a robot. Once it works it's just called a machine."

See also: dishwashing robot, bread-toasting robot, clothes-drying robot, etc.

A professor of robotics once told me that these things are not robots because they do work within an internal, controlled environment. A robot instead operates in or interacts with an external, uncontrolled environment. I don't think this thing would count as a robot in any sense unless there's some sophisticated sensory processing going on.

Same thing with AI: once machines can do it then it is no longer intelligence.

Misleading article - we were using the Thumper for mechanical CPR in the early 80's

There's on on eBay today :) https://www.ebay.com/itm/154453426364?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt...

I have used LUCAS lots of times. It's routine.

Good for the UK for finally adopting LUCAS, but they are quite behind other countries like Germany and the US in this.

As an ex-medic, doing CPR can for extended periods can be tiring, and given the limited amount of man power in deployments, the more that can be automated the better.

They’ve been using this for years, I’ve seen it myself. The headline is misleading.

In Austria these units are part of the paramedics equipment for years. They are especially convenient while moving the patient on the strecher (no kneeling anymore :) )

The consistency is probably a bonus as well.

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