Background: The quality of information during a medical visit, such as a preoperative anesthesia visit, impacts patient's satisfaction. New digital supports, including humanoid robots, have been recently proposed to provide medical information to patients. We aimed to assess whether the presence of a PEPPER humanoid robot, programmed to deliver information about anesthesia and surgery and placed in the waiting room for a preoperative anesthesia visit, can improve patient overall satisfaction.
Methods: We conducted a prospective, observational, before-after study. French-speaking adult patient global satisfaction (rated from 0 to 10) was measured after a scheduled preoperative anesthesia visit (for orthopedic, abdominal, urologic surgeries or for endoscopy), by direct interview with a research person, before modification of usual practices (information leaflets and brochure were given to the patients prior to the visit), and after the implementation in the waiting room of a PEPPER humanoid robot programmed to deliver information about anesthesia and surgery through short videos, designed by a group of healthcare workers and patients.
Results: Two hundred ninety-six patients (237 [80%] ASA I-II) were included, 179 before and 117 after periods. Patient global satisfaction was not different (8.9±1.6 vs. 9.0±1.4/10, for before and after periods, P=0.53). However, the satisfaction on the information about risks was significantly improved in the after period (8.5±2.3 vs. 9.1±1.4/10, P=0.017).
Conclusions: The presence of a humanoid PEPPER robot in the waiting room did not improve patient's global satisfaction about anesthesia visit.