Patient Acceptability of Automated Robotic Ultrasound by Patient Profile

Robotic ultrasound (US) has emerged as a promising solution to enhance the accuracy, consistency, and accessibility of US examinations. Although many studies have proposed various technologies toward full automation, patient acceptance of the robotic US system has not been discussed. This study explored the patient’s acceptability of robotic US through a questionnaire survey. The 480 participants were asked about their willingness to use a medical facility that offers robotic US examinations. The results showed that the score was 3.61 out of 6, slightly above the average of 3.5. As the reasons for wanting to undergo the robotic US examination, many participants pointed to “time” and “cost”. The most common reason for not wanting to use it was “vague anxiety” that patients feel somewhat anxious and “object anxiety” such as a fear of danger due to malfunction. These negative reasons were relatively low among participants who had found diseases via US examinations and among those who already had experience using robots in medical and nursing care fields. This suggests that patients need to increase their knowledge and experience of US examination and robotics to increase their willingness to use automated robotic US.