Aging at home
A University of Brighton team tested PARO's hygiene and cleaning for nine months on a dementia ward run by Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust in England.
A dated step forward on the record
What the source says
“Hygiene and cleaning tests were carried out over nine months by Dr Kathy Martyn,”
What it means
PARO, from PARO Robots (Intelligent System Co.), is at stage 4 of 5 on our ladder: paying customers. Its stage is set by other milestones on its record; this one adds to the history.
Human help: Our sources report it working without human help.
More on PARO
- The US government's medical device database lists PARO under the FDA product code for biofeedback devices, marked as exempt from premarket submission.
- AARP reported that some care facilities were using PARO to calm residents with dementia.
- PARO went on sale in the United States to individuals and institutions, at $6,000.
- PARO was listed with the US FDA as a Class II medical device that is exempt from premarket review. That means it did not need an FDA clearance before sale.
- PARO, designed by Dr Takanori Shibata at Japan's national research institute AIST, went on sale in Japan in 2005.