The Emergency Department (ED) is a stressful, safety-critical environment, which is overcrowded, noisy, chaotic, and understaffed. The built environment plays a key role in patient outcomes, experiences, and the mental health of healthcare workers (HCWs). However, once a space is built, it is diffcult to change it; so the modularity and adaptability of new technologies such as robots could potentially help stakeholders mitigate some of these challenges; yet, there is a lack of research in this area, particularly in the ED. In this paper, we address this gap by engaging HCWs in a research-through-design process, utilizing design fiction, to envision a future resilient ED. Here, robots scurry along the ceiling, provide help at the bedside, and smart furniture and walls provide spaces for privacy and calm. We co-created design prototypes of future intelligent systems that can modify the built environment to support resilience, which we then used to co-create a Design Catalog with HCWs, which contains a collection of future technology prototypes contextualized within the ED. We found that HCWs envisioned many ways for intelligent systems to help them reimagine the built environment, including ways to enhance HCW-patient communication, improve patient experience, support both HCW and patient safety, and use recongurable spaces to support privacy.We hope our work inspires further exploration into using new technologies to reimagine and reconfigure the built environment to support resilient hospitals.
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Angelique Taylor, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor at Cornell Tech in the Information Science Department with a field membership in Computer Science. She directs the Artificial Intelligence & Robotics (AIR) Lab, which focuses on research in the field of human-robot interaction (HRI). Angelique's work is at the intersection of robotics, computer vision, and artificial intelligence. Her research lab designs intelligent systems that work alongside groups of people in real-world, safety-critical environments. These systems are realized through community engagement with stakeholders to design multi-robot, robot vision, and AR/VR systems.
Before joining Cornell, she was a Visiting Research Scientist at Meta Reality Labs Research. She received her Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of California San Diego in 2021, B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2015, and her A.S. in Engineering Science from Saint Louis Community College in 2012. Angelique has received the NSF GRFP, Microsoft Dissertation Award, the Google Anita Borg Memorial Fellowship, the Arthur J. Schmitt Presidential Fellowship, a GEM Fellowship, and an award from the National Center for Women in Information Technology (NCWIT) as well as Best Paper Honorable Mention at CSCW 2019 and Best Paper Award at HRI 2022.
Laurel Reik, PhD is a professor of Computer Science and Engineering at UC San Diego, and also has appointments in the Department of Emergency Medicine, Contextual Robotics Institute, and Design Lab. Dr. Riek directs the Healthcare Robotics Lab, and leads research in human-robot teaming, assistive robotics, embodied AI, and health informatics, and builds intelligent systems which work proximately with people. Riek's current research projects have applications in acute care, neuro-rehabilitation, and home health. The lab is very interested in supporting health equity through community health efforts.
Prof. Riek received a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge, and BS in Logic and Computation from Carnegie Mellon University. Riek served as a Senior Artificial Intelligence Engineer and Roboticist at The MITRE Corporation from 2000-2008, working on learning and vision systems for robots. From 2011-2016 Prof. Riek held the Clare Boothe Luce chair in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Riek has received the NSF CAREER Award, AFOSR Young Investigator Award, Qualcomm Research Award, and multiple best paper awards. Prof. Riek currently serves on the editorial board of ACM Transactions on Human Robot Interaction (THRI) and is the HRI 2023 General Co-Chair.