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Robots in Hospitals

Dieppe writes "Robot couriers are being used in hospitals CNN. The robots are being used as delivery 'bots to deliver medicine and other hospital supplies. They are polite, and even can be overly cautious. I wonder if at night they supply them with saws, arms and other cutting devices and let them at each other? Turns out they're cost effective as well!"

7 of 258 comments (clear)

  1. Re:And...? by ResidntGeek · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes, then the roobt detects the hand tremors and removes them, so that the doctor doesn't accidentally slice open an artery or whatever. I *think* it's called the Da Vinci Surgical System.

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    ResidntGeek
  2. Re:little has changed.. by AKAImBatman · · Score: 3, Informative

    So basically, nothing has changed since Tron?

    Wrong movie there, bub. Looker predated Tron by over a year, and it actually FEATURED the trash robots running around. Just watch out for the bad guys with their "invisio-flashy-thingy" guns.

  3. This is news? by demonlapin · · Score: 5, Informative
    We've had one in my med school for, oh, four or five years. They even ginned up an ID badge for him, which necessitated a naming contest (the winning entry was "Rudy").

    Works just like the article says - takes drugs from the pharmacy to the floor. Fairly straightforward, really. I'm honestly surprised there aren't more in use - most hospitals (of any real size - I'm not counting all the rural 30- and 40-bed hospitals) use a pneumatic tube system of some sort to deliver meds to the floors, and those are notoriously difficult and expensive to maintain.

  4. Re:And...? by demonlapin · · Score: 3, Informative

    They demo'd it at my med school. The guys who tested it were suitably impressed. Buy the stock, folks. (No, I have no connection to them.)

  5. Re:Technology in hospitals by MisanthropicProgram · · Score: 3, Informative

    My girlfriend is a RN too. She likes the tech (when it works) because it helps eliminate mistakes. The scanning of wrist bar codes for drugs seems to be helping with that. It's amazing how often the wrong drugs or dosages are given to patients. Especially since nurses are incredibly overworked - they frequently have to work 12+ hours. In some hospitals, if you don't put in the time, they'll fire you. Some how, they're getting around labor laws. And now, hospitals are trying to get foreign workers to become nurses ...I'm going on a rant. I'm stopping.

  6. Re:Technology in hospitals by jjshoe · · Score: 4, Informative

    Are you perhaps thinking of a pyxis machine? [link]http://www.pyxis.com/[/link] The idea is fairly simple. You enter a patient id and you are given drug options. A drawer opens and you count the current amount of items. You take your item out and re-count. done.

    Dr. Plummer brought a lot of technology to the health care industry that can be read here [link]http://www.mayo.edu/proceedings/2002/nov/771 1ir.pdf[/link]. One of the items it does not cover that Dr. Plummer did was an intercom system. He called the telco and told a sales person what he wanted. The sales person said it couldnt be done. Plummer demanded to speak to an engineer, who also said it could not be done. Dr. Plummer convinced the engineer that it could and will be done. vwala.

    The paging sytem at Mayo now is quite efficent. You have a pager, number 11, for when you are away from your desk. Your boss decides he wants to talk to you. He answers the phone and dials 11. Your pager goes off. You pick up the nearest phone and press #11 causing you to be connected to your boss. If you are unable to answer your pager it rolls over to either a pre-defined number or voice mail. Robots arnt the only/most efficent technology used in hospitals.

    Anoter fact from [link]http://www.mayoclinic.org/about/rochester.ht ml[/link] "Mayo Clinic occupies approximately 15 million square feet -- about 2.9 times the size of the Mall of America." hit the site, browse around, be amazed.

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    -- botsex is {grep;touch;strip;unzip;head;mount} /dev/girl -t {wet;fsck;fsck;yes;yes;yes;umount} {/de
  7. Robots - had them since the 1970s! by Tsu+Dho+Nimh · · Score: 3, Informative
    We had "robotic" delivery carts for linens, food and supplies in the 1970s.

    Their flaw: they could be stymied by standing in their way and refusing to move, which made them of limited use in pediatrics because the kids kept harassing the robots.