Technology’s Soft Touch: AI Social Robots Bring Joy to Palliative Care

A major highlight was Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung’s announcement that Singapore aims to train 10,000 nurses in general palliative care competencies by 2030. The plan will equip more than a fifth of the country’s nursing workforce with skills to support patients’ need in physical, emotional and spiritual dimensions. 

He shared that the broader training across healthcare roles will improve continuity of care. Currently, more patients are receiving palliative support, but many still spent their final days in hospitals. Efforts are already underway to strengthen home and hospice care, and improve the support to families requiring complex care. 

The fireside chats were particularly impactful, as they balanced technical clinical updates with deeply personal stories of patient dignity and legacy building.

Singapore Hospice Council invited SUSS to showcase our social robots work, and the joint study with Dover Park Hospice, in the interactive zone of the exhibition. SUSS-Nunchi Marine Age Well programme team showcased social robots: LOVOT, a family pet robot from Japan, Hyodol, the doll-like conversational robot from Korea and Kebbi, a smart robot with programmable capabilities from Taiwan. 

Conference attendees; mostly from the healthcare and allied healthcare fields, acknowledged the important role companion robots play in engaging older adults, while reducing the stress and burnout of the professional carers.

Some care practitioners expressed keen interest in using Hyodol to comfort elderly bedbound patients, to ease their anxiety during care treatments and moments of loneliness in the care ward. 

From our study, the care staff and residents at Dover Park Hospice indicated that the overall joy was enhanced in the environment during the period LOVOT spent with them.

Always a crowd favourite, LOVOT due to its highly intuitive and animated features, is designed to create emotional bonds with people. There are currently more than 18,000 LOVOTs living in homes and care facilities in Japan. GROOVE X, the creator of LOVOT, has also been developing a new capability for LOVOT — one that goes beyond comfort and companionship. When someone collapses at home, LOVOT can find them, call out to them, and ultimately alert others.

In the future, more AI technology and innovations can certainly complement and make care delivery a more integrated journey with families and communities in Singapore.