Jinshan Hospital and PIA Launch Embodied Robots to Empower "Unaccompanied Care"

In the late-night wards of Jinshan Hospital affiliated with Fudan University, there is an extra pair of "eyes that never blink." In the early hours, the ward lights are dimmed to a low-glow mode, the care plans on the large screen at the nurses' station are updated in sync, and an embodied robot automatically plans its route, starts cruising, and begins a silent round of nighttime patrols. The embodied robot at work. Following "human-machine joint" home visits and diagnosis, and embodied intelligence empowering operating room management, Fudan University Jinshan Hospital, together with the Fudan University Consumer Market Big Data Laboratory, the Shanghai Hongqiao Silver Economy Research Institute, and PIA (JUNPING Intelligent), has recently launched another new practice in the field of human-machine collaborative medical services, innovatively introducing an embodied robot to empower the "unaccompanied care" scenario. A wheeled-arm embodied robot shuttles between general wards and the intensive care unit, reducing the burden on and improving the efficiency of clinical nursing across six dimensions: assisted care, risk warning, compliance supervision, remote companion communication, quality control management, and operational scheduling. It fulfills the care commitment that "when family members cannot enter, care is not absent," injecting technological strength into unaccompanied wards. Main functions of the embodied robot. Yang Zhen, Executive Director of Jinshan Hospital, said that the hospital adheres to the development approach of "deepening specialty research within the hospital, extending services beyond the hospital, empowering medical care with technology, and protecting people's livelihoods with warmth," and steadily follows the path of human-machine collaborative development. Robots are allowed to take on standardized, transactional, and repetitive work, freeing medical staff and nursing aides from cumbersome affairs so they can return to professional care and humanistic concern. Currently at Jinshan Hospital, the embodied robot empowering the unaccompanied care scenario does not mean the robot stands guard alone; rather, it builds a tripartite collaboration model led by nursing aides, coordinated by nurses, and assisted by robots. The robot does not directly carry out invasive or physical-contact nursing operations; it is a capable collaborator for nurses and nursing aides, and also a digital tool for refined management and control by nursing managers. From morning care to late-night duty, the six empowerment scenarios of assisted care, risk warning, compliance supervision, remote companion communication, quality control management, and operational scheduling run through the entire patient care cycle. Achieving fall risk prevention and control. The embodied robot navigates and moves autonomously according to the day's care work orders, and works with nursing aides to help bedridden patients adjust their position and place positioning cushions; after completing specimen barcode scanning and verification, it transports them along the planned route to the nurses' station for handover; meals are delivered to the bedside, and the robotic arm steadily places them on the bedside table. In the intensive care unit, nurses issue voice commands, and the robot can autonomously go to the supply cabinet to retrieve items such as oral care kits; soiled linens are scanned and counted, and the number of sheets and patient gowns is automatically verified, with clear records. Arriving at the bedside, the embodied robot keeps a close eye on the first line of safety defense: visual recognition detects that the bed rail has not been raised, and it immediately issues a voice prompt and assists in resetting the bed rail, promptly eliminating the hidden danger of falls; once it identifies a patient attempting to leave the bed alone, a bed-exit warning is triggered immediately, with a synchronized reminder: "Please call the nursing aide before leaving the bed. Do not get out of bed alone. If you feel unwell, please inform the nursing aide promptly." The embodied robot is also a "sleepless" health sentinel, collecting vital signs such as blood oxygen and heart rate in a non-contact manner, issuing graded warnings for abnormal indicators, and pushing information to the large screen at the nurses' station and nurses' handheld PDAs within seconds. Mobile devices for remote control. During the early morning hours, it cruises quietly at low brightness, continuously monitors bedside conditions with infrared, and reports information such as insufficient IV fluid remaining and abnormal vital signs in real time. "Abnormal blood oxygen, please handle promptly." "It's time to turn over; assist with the left lateral position." The embodied robot can issue turn-over reminders on time. For long-term bedridden patients, regular turning is key to preventing pressure ulcers and ensuring unobstructed breathing. This trivial, repetitive task that tests patience is never missed by the robot. From human-machine collaborative home visits and diagnosis, to embodied intelligence empowering operating room management, and now to the implementation of the unaccompanied care scenario, the embodied intelligence applications at Jinshan Hospital are gradually extending from diagnosis and treatment to long-term care, and the service boundary is expanding from within the hospital to beyond it, initially forming a human-machine collaborative service pattern covering the entire chain of prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and management. Yang Zhen said that the robot's positioning is to empower medical staff and assist clinical work, never to replace medical staff; the deep integration of embodied intelligence and clinical care will continue to accumulate technological momentum for building a Healthy China during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period and enabling ordinary people to enjoy high-quality medical services at their doorstep. Next, Jinshan Hospital will also rely on the medical-engineering intersection platform and the robot collaborative training base to continue expanding the application boundaries of embodied intelligence in medical and nursing scenarios, explore more service scenarios, and adhere to the principle of precision in technology and warmth in care, so that people's health has a more solid "medical" support.