Governing the adoption of robotics and autonomous systems in long-term care in Singapore

Abstract

ABSTRACT Robotics and autonomous systems have been dubbed as viable technological solutions to address the incessant demand for long-term care (LTC) across the world, which is exacerbated by ageing populations. However, similar to other emerging technologies, the adoption of robotics and autonomous systems in LTC pose risks and unintended consequences. In the health and LTC sectors, there are additional bioethics concerns that are associated with novel technology applications. Using an in-depth case study, we examined the adoption of novel technologies such as robotics and autonomous systems in LTC to meet the rising social care demand in Singapore consequent to its ageing population. We first described the LTC sector in Singapore and traced the development of robotics and autonomous systems deployed in the LTC setting. We then examined technological risks and ethical issues that are associated with their applications. In addressing these technological risks and ethical concerns, Singapore has adopted a regulatory sandbox approach that fosters experimentation through the creation of a robotics test-bed and the initiation of various robotics pilots in different health clusters. The stakeholders largely envision positive scenarios of human-robot coexistence in the LTC setting. When robots can take over routine and manual care duties in the future, human care workers can be freed up to provide more personalised care to the care recipients. We also highlighted existing gaps in the governance of technological risks and ethical issues surrounding the deployment of robotics and autonomous systems in LTC that can be advanced as future research agendas.