Children's Pain During IV Induction: A Randomized-Controlled Trial With the MEDi® Robot

Area of Science:

• Pediatric care
• Human-robot interaction
• Pain management

Background:

• Intravenous (IV) line placement can cause pain and fear in children.
• Coping strategies are essential to manage pediatric procedural distress.
• Humanoid robots offer potential for novel interventions in healthcare settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the impact of a humanoid robot (MEDi®) teaching deep breathing on children's pain and fear during IV line placement.
• To explore the effect of robot-facilitated intervention on IV induction completion rates.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial involving 137 children (4-12 years) undergoing IV line placement.
• Comparison between standard care (SC) with Ametop© and SC with robot-facilitated intervention (MEDi®).
• Pain and fear were measured before, during, and after the procedure by patients and observers.

Main Results:

• No significant differences in pain or fear were observed between the robot intervention group and the standard care group.
• Children receiving the MEDi® intervention were 5.04 times more likely to complete IV induction successfully compared to standard care.
• Exploratory analysis indicated a statistically significant improvement in IV induction completion (p = .04).

Conclusions:

• The study is the first to investigate MEDi® support for children during IV induction.
• While not reducing pain or fear, the robot intervention showed promise in improving procedural success.
• Further research is needed to understand limitations and optimize robot-assisted interventions for pediatric procedures.