It sounds almost like something out of a science fiction story: a human-height robot wandering the hallways, with a screen on top showing the face of the person who is controlling it and seeing from the robot’s perspective. However, according to a report from The Sacramento Bee, this is a reality in Mercy San Juan Medical Center thanks to a robot from iRobot called the Remote Presence Virtual Independent Telemedicine Assistant (RP-VITA).
RP-VITA was created for use in hospitals, where there are often situations in which a specialist is needed, but none work in the immediate area. Video telepresence is already used in a wide variety of situations, including applications in medicine such as remote surgical assistance. The RP-VITA, however, takes this presence one step further.
Doctors can use the RP-VITA to see patients who they would otherwise have no way of seeing. As Dr. Shatzel, a neurologist at the Mercy Neurological Institute, says, “What [nurses] describe often doesn't match what we see. Making the right decision at the right time will save the patient and drive down healthcare costs.” It is obviously much easier for a proper diagnosis to be made when a doctor can see the patient with his or her own eyes.
The really unique feature of RP-VITA is its mobility. The robot is placed in the medical facility in which it’s needed, and the doctor using it can control its movement from their own location via a computer or iPad. It typically only takes about six minutes for a doctor to reach a patient after being paged.
Although the $4,000 to $6,000 per month that it costs to lease an RP-VITA robot is a bit prohibitive, robotic technology in the field of medicine has been gaining traction lately, and it seems likely that this sort of technology will continue to be developed and eventually the price may lower.
Edited by
Alisen Downey
