G.I. Robot, Robot MD, and iRobot - Robot MD
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Robot MD
From battlefields to hospital wards, robots are becoming quite commonplace. I have seen Expert Systems model a doctor’s diagnostic procedure, but now hospitals are using robots to solve a logistics problem in a way that would warm the heart of any process manager. Faced with a dearth of specialist doctors and rising cases of incidents that need a specialist’s decision making, now even small hospitals with a general practitioner can make calls on situations which normally need a separate consultation with a specialist.
How It Works
Spearheading the use of these “specialist” robots is St Josephs Mercy Oakland in Pontiac, Michigan, a premier specialist hospital in the treatment of stroke that has an abundance of neurologists. When on call, these neurologists, armed with a laptop and an Internet connection, remotely connect (and control) an attending robot in another hospital that needs their expertise. The specialists can be anywhere in the world.
Once paged, they connect and start interacting with the patient using the robot in order to make a diagnosis. Formerly, the patients would have to be physically transported to where the skill is. This can be a chilling reality to someone who has suffered from a stroke, where every second counts.
The robots, model number RP-7, are made by Intouch Health, a California company. They are five feet tall and have a camera through which video and audio are transmitted to the neurologist. The doctor has a joystick controller which he uses to move the robot around. The robots are reportedly used for other purposes such as ward rounds by doctors who do not want to leave their office. Marketers for Intouch claim that the robot is better than teleconferencing, since the doctors now have a lot of control over the movement of the camera.
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