{"stable_id":"5fd1310c888e85c2","slug":"paro-dementia-care-rct","company":"Twenty-eight South-East Queensland long-term care facilities","workflow_name":"PARO robotic-seal engagement sessions","function_code":"customer_service","pattern_codes":["creator_to_judge"],"changed_assumption":"Hinge: a responsive social robot can provide repeatable short engagement sessions as an adjunct to care, without replacing clinical assessment or human relationships.","evidence_strength":"verified","publication_tier":"showcase","freshness":"watch","reviewed_at":"2026-08-23","updated_at":"2026-08-22","source_quality_summary":"1 peer reviewed; publication outcomes are verified.","caveat_summary":"Engagement effects do not establish broad clinical improvement. Mixed outcome measures make this a qualified, not uniformly positive, case.","freshness_caveat":"Watch status: verify the cited source and deployment condition before reusing this case.","workflow_summary":{"before":[{"actor":"Care staff","action":"Provides usual care and available psychosocial activities.","actor_type":"human"},{"actor":"Care staff","action":"Observes mood, engagement, and agitation.","actor_type":"human"}],"hinge":"Hinge: a responsive social robot can provide repeatable short engagement sessions as an adjunct to care.","after":[{"actor":"Resident with PARO","action":"Participates in an individual non-facilitated 15-minute responsive-robot session three times weekly.","actor_type":"system"},{"actor":"Care staff","action":"Interprets response and adjusts care; stops use if distress or infection-control concerns arise.","actor_type":"human"}],"decision_mode":"shared","decision_marker":"Human moves from creator to judge"},"before":[{"order":1,"actor":"Care staff","action":"Provides usual care and available psychosocial activities.","handoff_to":"Resident","control":"Care plan and staff observation."},{"order":2,"actor":"Care staff","action":"Observes mood, engagement, and agitation.","handoff_to":"Clinical team","control":"Human assessment."}],"after":[{"order":1,"actor":"Resident with PARO","action":"Participates in an individual non-facilitated 15-minute responsive-robot session three times weekly.","handoff_to":"Care observation","control":"Ten-week protocol and facility supervision."},{"order":2,"actor":"Care staff","action":"Interprets response and adjusts care; stops use if distress or infection-control concerns arise.","handoff_to":"Clinical team","control":"Human care authority."}],"decision_rights":"Care staff and clinicians decide suitability, continuation, and treatment.","exception_path":"Stop or substitute another activity for distress, non-engagement, infection risk, or clinical concern.","removed_work":["None claimed; PARO adds a repeatable engagement option rather than removing human care"],"outcomes":[{"metric":"Observed visual and verbal engagement","baseline":"Look-alike plush-toy sessions.","result":"PARO participants were significantly more verbally and visually engaged than plush-toy participants.","period":"Ten-week cluster-randomized intervention with follow-up.","scale":"415 residents across 28 facilities.","attribution_caveat":"Engagement effects do not establish broad clinical improvement.","evidence_label":"verified"},{"metric":"Agitation","baseline":"Usual care and plush-toy comparison.","result":"Video observation favored PARO over usual care, but CMAI-SF showed no significant group difference and PARO was not consistently superior to plush toy.","period":"Ten-week intervention.","scale":"415 residents.","attribution_caveat":"Mixed outcome measures make this a qualified, not uniformly positive, case.","evidence_label":"verified"}],"executive_lesson":"A humane robotics case should report comparator-sensitive and null findings, not only engagement gains.","anti_pattern":"Using a social robot to reduce human contact or overstating mixed agitation results.","questions_for_leaders":["Who benefits and who does not?","What outcomes justify continued use?","How are dignity and consent protected?"],"collections":["human-still-decides","embodied-work"],"bundle_version":"1.0.0","bundle_fingerprint":"sha256:c23c6cc2b88153d008ea8fda928f632ce0011fc2d4c5036672a16e5d895bab93","canonical_url":"https://brianletort.ai/transformations/paro-dementia-care-rct"}