SOUTH KOREA: South Korea's decreasing birth rate prompts its medical students to use robots to practice delivering babies

With South Korea's birth rate at its lowest ever, the country's medical students are resorting to robots that can simulate baby deliveries for more real-life practice. In a classroom at the Kyunghee University Medical Centre in Seoul recently, students crowded around a life-sized, female robot named Noelle giving birth, while another student carefully pulled out the baby's head and arms from the mother robot's uterus. Other students carefully monitored the mother robot's blood pressure and heart rate, which have been also simulated to a real-life situation. The newborn baby was then given a medical checkup. The blue lights that lit from its hands and cheeks indicated that it may have health problems. A pink light meant the baby was healthy. "With this simulator training tool, we can conduct not only normal deliveries, but also complicated deliveries such as breech births, caesarean deliveries, gestosis and shoulder dystocia. Students can practice in a very realistic situation with this mannequin," said Professor Jung Eui, who teaches a obstetrics course at the Kyunghee University. The university is the first in South Korea to use the robots to simulate baby deliveries. Students say using Noelle, the name of the mother robot, is more useful than sitting in a classroom and taking notes. "I think it's more helpful to have delivery training on a lifelike mannequin than studying with books or lectures before treating my first live patient," said Woon Jin-kwang, a Kyunghee University medical student. Professor Jung said South Korea's consistently decreasing birth-rate gave her students fewer chances to watch and practice delivering babies, making Noelle's presence inevitable in her classroom. "It's very important that my students who are taking obstetrics courses can experience actual medical treatment and delivery. So for the first time, we introduced an obstetrics training tool, a robot system produced for simulating medical treatment and delivery, to our country," Professor Jung added. South Korea has a current population of just more than 48 million and already has the lowest birth rate in the developed world - an average of 1.08 children per woman. Noelle was purchased for 20,000 U.S. dollars from Miami-based Gaumard Scientific Co. Inc. in the United States. She was manufactured in 2000 and over 400 have been sold in the United States. Two Noelles have been sold to South Korea.

ITN Source | January 5, 2007

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