How Vancouver General Hospital is using robots to help with cancer treatment

Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) is the first in Canada to use specially designed robots to help prepare chemotherapy treatments.

Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) is now the first in Canada to use specially designed robots to help prepare chemotherapy treatments, a move staff say could change how cancer care is delivered.

The KIRO oncology robots are used to prepare and assemble treatments for patients while reducing exposure for health-care workers handling hazardous drugs.

“This is a very lifesaving technology,” said Jason Park, a pharmacy co-ordinator at VGH.

Hospital staff say the technology is also improving efficiency.

“Being able to prepare these medications in the way that we are doing with robotic technology, it allows us to be much more efficient with our workflow,” Park said.

In the past, pharmacy technicians could take about an hour to prepare 12 treatments. With the robots, that process now takes closer to 40 minutes.

“(It’s a) big difference maker,” said Park. “We are able to speed up our drug delivery process and production by approximately 30 per cent relative to doing it in a manual fashion.”

The $3 million robots were launched in December, funded by the VGH and UBC Hospital Foundation’s Greater Than Cancer campaign.

“We needed to make sure the accuracy, safety and timely delivery of our medication, and all three are met by the KIRO oncology robots,” said Dr. Nilu Partovi, director of pharmacy services at VGH.

“It’s an important investment,” said Angela Chapman, president of the foundation.

Chapman says the technology could have broader benefits beyond Vancouver.

“It’s a lot more efficient, so it’s going to save the province money,” said Chapman. “We believe that then that will be proof of concept for this to roll out in other locations in B.C. and, of course, across Canada.”

While errors are possible, staff say they are extremely rare and are designed to be caught before the medication reaches patients.

“We do have safety parameters in check,” Park said. “So, if there is an unexplained difference in what we expect … the robot knows and goes, ‘No, don’t use this drug.’”

For now, the robots are focused on leukemia and bone marrow transplant patients.

With demand for cancer care continuing to rise, staff say the technology could play a key role in helping the system keep up.

“This is just hopefully the beginning,” Park said.