Robotic Platform Eases Patient Transfers at Bruyère Health

At Bruyère Health’s Centretown Site, a robotic device called the ALTA Platform® is changing a task that happens hundreds of times a week: moving patients in and out of beds. Transfers that used to need two or three people can now be done by one trained team member at the push of a button.

While using the ALTA Platform, staff are reporting faster transfers and are experiencing less strain on their bodies. Patients say it feels like a special stretcher, not a robot, and that they feel more dignity and less vulnerability during transfers.

After early prototyping with local research partners, including Carleton University, Bruyère Health brought the ALTA Platform, developed by Able Innovations Inc., in for a pilot, and the device was refined with ongoing clinical feedback to ensure it met users’ needs. As a first adopter and evaluation site for a Canadian AI-driven innovation, Bruyère Health is helping to turn promising tools into real practice - another way hospitals can support development while engaging in practical research.

How it works

The ALTA Platform rolls under the patient, checks alignment and completes a lateral transfer onto or off of a transfer surface (such as a bed, stretcher, CT/Imaging table etc.). It adjusts its operation based on real-time data, such as the patient’s position and body orientation, ensuring optimal alignment, and support throughout the transfer process. In addition, the ALTA Platform incorporates smart features like collision detection and avoidance, a haptic drive mechanism for intuitive control, and an intelligent user interface designed for ease of use.

Intelligent features allow the ALTA Platform to be driven easily, only requiring the care provider to exert less than five pounds of force to transport the patient to their designated location. The ALTA Platform uses a mix of perception, rules and machine learning models to recognize and respond to what’s in the scene, check that conditions are safe, then progresses to the next step. The robot handles the heavy, repeat work, and the staff member directs the transfer and transport.

“Since our pilot, our teams are completing faster transfers and are spending less time coordinating extra hands to transfer a patient which is also easing some of the physical stress that transfers can have on staff,” said Blake Daly, Innovation Lead at Bruyère Health.

“Patients describe a calmer experience and testing has shown about five times lower shear forces on the skin than lift-and-slide methods, which matters for complex-care patients who are vulnerable to skin injuries.” (Source: Measurement of Dynamic Forces Applied to Skin During Lateral Patient Transfers Using the ALTA System)

“Since our pilot, our teams are completing faster transfers and are spending less time coordinating extra hands to transfer a patient which is also easing some of the physical stress that transfers can have on staff.”

Blake Daly

— Innovation Lead, Bruyère Health

The motivation for the ALTA Platform started at home for Jayiesh Singh, an engineer, co-founder and CEO of Able Innovations Inc., whose mother works in long-term care. “I saw that my mother and her co-workers were developing chronic injuries from doing manual transfers by themselves, but no one seemed to be asking whether it could be done better; the more I looked, the methods hadn’t really changed in 50 or 60 years,” said Singh. “That set us on an R&D effort to see if robotics could help and to create the first-of-its-kind device that removes the risky lift while keeping care face to face.”

Bruyère Health was one of the first hospitals to begin using the ALTA Platform, alongside other Canadian hospitals in London, Halifax, Vancouver and Toronto. At Bruyère Health, the policy work, training and further implementation are underway, and the device is being used where it delivers the most value. Daly also hopes to see the solution in other Ottawa hospitals.

“I saw that my mother and her co-workers were developing chronic injuries from doing manual transfers by themselves, but no one seemed to be asking whether it could be done better.”

Jayiesh Singh

— CEO of Able Innovations Inc.

“This was a dream process and something we want to see more often: from a problem to a research lab to real-world care,” said Daly. “We need to bring AI builders into the room with people who face real problems in care and ask a simple question: can we use AI here? Let’s inspire talented people who have unlimited job opportunities to choose health care, where their skills can improve lives.”

With steady support for research, testing and scale-up, and closer collaboration between university labs, hospital teams and innovators, practical and AI-enabled tools like the ALTA Platform can move from pilot to practice to resolve the next set of front-line challenges and ultimately help make healthcare safer and more dignified for staff and their patients.