Market Challenges And Opportunities

Analyst’s Views:

The robotic nurse assistant market has strong growth potential driven by the increase in elderly population globally which requires more healthcare assistance. Elderly care is a significant cost for governments, and with staff shortages, robotic assistants can help address this issue. Another major driver is the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has increased the demand for technologies that minimize human contact and risk of infection for both patients and nurses. Robotic assistants can reduce disease transmission in healthcare facilities. However, high initial costs of these systems and replacement parts is a major restraint to adoption in cost-sensitive markets. User acceptance is also a challenge as both patients and nurses need to feel comfortable with robot's care abilities. Data privacy and security is another concern as patient information will be collected and stored by these devices. Regulations around robot-humans interactions may differ between regions and need to be addressed.

Global Robotic Nurse Assistant Market - Drivers

Increasing Adoption of Robotic Nursing Assistant Devices: The healthcare industry has seen a huge surge in the adoption of robotic nursing assistant devices in recent years. Robotic nurse assistants are being deployed in hospitals, nursing homes, and ambulatory care centers to assist nurses and care providers with tasks like medication management, patient monitoring, and logistics. For instance, in January 2023, MultiCare Health System, which provides hospital, clinic, primary care, specialty, emergency and urgent care health care services across the Washington state, announced the introduction of four Moxi, robot assistants. Moxi, created by Diligent Robotics, operates as a human-centered robotics company, will serve as an aid to nurses and will not have patient interaction or go into patient rooms. Some of its duties include delivering lab samples and running patient medications, supplies, and other items for patient care.
Shortage of nursing staff: The shortage of nursing staff is one of the key driving factors for the growth of the robotic nurse assistant market. With the growing aging population across geographies and rising healthcare needs, the demand for nurses and care professionals has increased significantly over the past few years. However, many developed countries are facing a severe shortage of nursing workforce. For instance, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that more than 275,000 additional nurses are needed from 2020 to 2030, and that employment opportunities for nurses will grow at 9 percent, faster than all other occupations from 2016 through 2026.

Global Robotic Nurse Assistant Market - Opportunities

Untapped Emerging Markets: There are several emerging economies that currently have underdeveloped healthcare infrastructure and nurse staffing shortages which represent major market potential for robotic nurse assistants. Nations like India, Indonesia, Brazil, and many across Africa are experiencing rapid growth and aging populations and have a growing need to care for their elderly. However, these regions struggle to train and hire enough human nurses and caregivers to meet demand. Due to low wages and challenging working conditions, the nursing profession also faces high turnover rates that exacerbate the staffing crisis. If robotic nurse assistants can deliver cost-effective care and reduce the physical burdens on human nurses, it could help alleviate pressures on developing healthcare systems and improve standards of care for patients.

Growth Drivers:

Increasing adoption of robotic nursing assistant devices
Shortage of nursing staff

Restraints & Challenges:

Technical issues related to the use of nursing-care robots
Resistance from healthcare staff

Global Robotic Nurse Assistant Market - Restraints

Technical Issues Related to the Use of Nursing-Care Robots: The usage of robots in the healthcare sector and their increasingly growing interaction with humans raises a series of new and challenging safety and security questions. For that reasons, in order to act in a responsible way, all the involved entities, starting with the manufacturers, have to face the predictability issue and invest resources to identify in advance all the potential hazards that the implementation of nursing-care robots can entail. As a matter of fact, safety and avoidance of harm should be of utmost importance in healthcare domain when using robots because of the involvement of vulnerable people such as ill and older adults and children. There is the need for an improved technique that will eliminate or reduce safety-related failures as well as eliminating unpredictable behaviors. Another specific concern about security is on how to keep robots safe from being hacked. As powerful as technology become, it is important also to check the activities of hackers who might exploit the technology for nefarious activities.

Counterbalance: Implementing robust testing, continuous monitoring, and cybersecurity measures, alongside comprehensive training for healthcare professionals, can counterbalance technical issues related to nursing-care robots.

Resistance from healthcare staff: The resistance from healthcare staff poses a significant challenge for the growth of the robotic nurse assistant market. Healthcare professionals are wary of how robots may disrupt the human-centric model of care delivery. Nurses in particular have reservations about robots replacing some of their routine tasks and altering the caring dynamic between themselves and patients. They fear robots can never match the level of empathy, communication skills and emotional support integral to nursing. While robots may take over menial duties to aid efficiency, nurses are concerned about over-reliance on technology compromising the human touch in care.