In the Near Future, Your Life May Be Saved By a Robot

New study demonstrates viability of a closed-loop shock-resuscitation system.

They call it the golden hour. Sixty minutes, give or take, when the chance to save the life of a trauma victim is at its greatest. If the patient can be resuscitated and stabilized in that time window, they stand a good chance of surviving. If not, well, they don’t.

But resuscitation is complicated. It requires bloods, fluids, vasopressors — all given in precise doses in response to rapidly changing hemodynamics. To do it right takes specialized training — advanced life support (ALS).

If the patient is in a remote area, or an area without ALS-certified emergency medical services, or is far from the nearest trauma center, that golden hour is lost. And the patient may be as well.

But we live in the future. We have robots in factories, self-driving cars, autonomous drones. Why not an autonomous trauma doctor? If you are in a life-threatening accident, would you want to be treated… by a robot?

Enter “Resuscitation based on Functional Hemodynamic Monitoring” or “ReFit”, introduced in this article appearing in the journal Intensive Care Medicine Experimental.