Discussions were organized by the Fondazione Maruzza (Rome, Italy) under the auspices of the Pontifical Academy for Life. The full title of the webinar is the Use of Technology in Children's Palliative Care.
Doctors as well as experts discussed cooperation between telemedicine, artificial intelligence and robotics including treatment of children with Covid-19. The webinar also arose disputes on particular qualities of online consultations for the young patients on domestic medicine. The participants deliberated ethical issues, when using telemedicine and teleconsultations, clarified the possible areas for virtual reality to provide palliative care for children. The WMA AM and the Presidium Member of the All-Russian public organization of Society of doctors of Russia Stepan Firstov joined the discussions.
The main interest of the audience was drawn to implementation of an artificial intelligence for treatment of children. For example, children with cancer were offered to undergo rehabilitation period with the support of humanoid robot, which helps to avoid stress and depression. The studies were conducted on the use of robot cats to treat terminal restlessness. Moreover, the artificial intelligence is used to identifying treatment goals, risk analysis of severe diseases, fixed deviations from best practice recommendations in clinical care.
As a Palliative Care and Pain Service of Women`s and Children`s Health Department of the university of Padua, Italy Anna Zanin said, that VR was used for therapeutic relief of pain and anxiety with shifting the focus of attention.
The webinar also took deputes on practice of consultations through telehealth. In his speeches the True Chair in Palliative Care for Children and Young People, University College of London Myra Bluebond-Langer and the Chief of St. Jude’s Quality of Life and Palliative Care Division Justin Baker explained the process of medical consultation in an online-mode. Speakers noted, that the telehealth still imposed some restrictions on medical consultations. For example, do not forget about medical ethics and date confidentiality. Practice has shown, that despite the rapid development of technologies, telecommunication systems are still in need for improvements.
Scientists did not come aside the issue of bioethics. The world was introduced in 70s of the twentieth century by Van Rensselaer Potter, who clarified the meaning of the bioethics as "the task of combining biological knowledge with the knowledge of a system of human values." Bioethics is a bridge among two cultures: scientific and humanistic. In this context, the practice of telemedicine implies a mutation of the human space-time relationships, a change in the usual model of interaction between a doctor and a patient. And all this is not an issue of the distant future, but nowadays.