Abstract— Studies has shown that medical diagnosis of patients in most developing countries and especially in rural areas are adversely affected by lack of proper healthcare structures, poor patient to doctor ratio and sub-standard educational systems. More so, these services are not accessible due non-affordability and poor human resource allocation in public facilities. In an attempt to bridge this gap, medical Robotic assistive systems were recently introduced to enhance general healthcare access and to carry out early diagnosis of common ailments. The rapid expansion of wireless communication networks has enabled these developments. Such intelligence systems consist of wireless monitoring systems, sensor networks, medical devices, wireless communication, middleware software and software applications that help advance improvements in healthcare. This paper attempts to review the use of Medical Robotic assistive systems for early diagnosis of common ailments. Furthermore, the literature review exposes the gap in early diagnosis and some part of opportunity that have not been explored for early diagnosis of common ailments in rural areas. The study concludes that robotic systems will in fact be an important part of future interventions, but more research and clinical trials are needed. 

 

Index Term—early diagnostics, wireless medical devices, sensor networks, Medical Robotic Assistive System (MRA), health tracking

Cite: Obakeng L. Sehume and Elisha D. Markus, "A Critical Analysis of Medical Robotic Assistive Systems for Early Diagnosis of Common Ailments in South Africa," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 9, No. 10, pp. 1451-1456, October 2020. DOI: 10.18178/ijmerr.9.10.1451-1456

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