Robot Helps Ease Children's Fear of Needles

A new talking robot is the latest tool employed to help ease needle anxiety in young children. The robot, named MEDi, greets children with a high-five, collects toys from a tray and asks questions like "Do you like movies?"

According to a study published in the June issue of Vaccine, the tactic may just be working. The study found that children who talked with the robot while receiving a flue shot had much less pain and distress than children who didn't.

For the study, Dr. Tanya Beran, a professor of community health sciences at the University of Calgary in Alberta and the principle investigator of the study, and her team recruited 57 boys and girls, ages 4 to 9, who had a moderate to severe fear of needles.

According to the New York Times, many subjects had chronic medical conditions and had been to the hospital in the past. Also, many had vomited, fainted, run out of a clinic or needed to be restrained when undergoing shots and other procedures. Children were randomly assigned to one of two groups, one with routine vaccination protocol administered by a nurse and the other with the addition of MEDi.

The robot is made by French company Aldebaran Robotics and is sold under the name NAO for around $15,000. Calgary researchers named their robot MEDi, short for Medicine and Engineering Designing Intelligence. The robots have also been used for elder care, providing reminders to take medications, demonstrating yoga poses, and more.

"The robot was distracting the child during distress, but also giving instruction for how to cope," Dr. Beran said. "Deep breathing relaxes the deltoid muscle."

Children, parents, nurses and researchers were asked to then rate the child's distress. All said those in the robot group had significantly less pain and distress than those receiving routine care.