Mon, 16 May, 2022
Smart hospitals are not a vague concept of the future. In a post-COVID-19 world, they are a necessity. Therefore, ODIN, a Horizon 2020 project, joins the health tech revolution by addressing critical challenges in European hospitals. The aim is to enhance hospital management and make hospitals more resilient, productive and secure by employing robotics, internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI).
For three and a half years, the 21-member consortium, consisting of universities, SMEs and organisations from twelve European countries, will focus on providing AI tools (eWorkers) for hospital staff, the introduction of autonomous cobots (eRobots), and the IoT enhancement of healthcare facilities and logistics (eLocations). This way, healthcare professionals will be better equipped to practise advanced medicine, patients will receive improved treatment and the personnel will be in full charge of the hospital environment. In order to assess the effectiveness of the above technologies, the project will test them through six Clinical User Cases in six European countries: Spain, France, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands and Italy.
More specifically, the TWI Hellas team is working on robot coordination and DevOps infrastructure, the integration of new features, fleet management, and other development necessities such as ensuring platform security, privacy and trust mechanisms.
In his own words, Mike Karamousadakis, the Robotics Software Engineer leading the TWI Hellas effort for the ODIN project, says “Working for ODIN makes me feel motivated and excited for the innovation and positive change it can generate through the application of interdisciplinary technologies in several hospitals. Health tech brings opportunities along with challenges, such as security, privacy and trust, and collaborating with prestigious organisations in solving these problems has been a unique experience for me.”
So far, the ODIN team has worked on five webinars focusing on different topics of interest, from hospital disaster preparedness to rehabilitation and assistive robots, with a range of esteemed speakers sharing their knowledge. Additionally, project partners have been conducting workshops on various parts of the ODIN ecosystem and attending events to spread the word about the project’s research efforts.
Overall, the ODIN project opens the door to the future of healthcare by researching, testing and showcasing the effectiveness of AI-based technologies in the hospital context. It also creates a fertile environment where fruitful discussions with policymakers, investors and stakeholders could collaborate to bring the ODIN technologies to European hospitals. Last but not least, the EU-funded, futuristic initiative is a great way to bring AI to the forefront, build trust around it and improve funding options for the healthcare sector.