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iRobot's Robot Doc Is Ready To Heal You

Posted by Soulskill on from the bones-wouldn't-trust-them dept.

SkinnyGuy tips news that patients may soon be getting diagnosed with the help of a 5'4", 140lb assistant going by the name of RP-VITA. The 'Remote Presence Virtual + Independent Telemedicine Assistant' was unveiled this week by iRobot (the company behind the Roomba vacuum bot) and InTouch Health, and it allows doctors a way to remotely gather data. "It may be controlled via joystick, but RP-Vita does have some awareness of its environment. It employs a dazzling array of sensors that include PrimeSense Sensors (the same ones you find in the Kinect for Xbox 360), two cameras that together approximate normal human vision, sonar and a laser range finder. It also creates a map of the hospital and knows the location, for example, of its roll-into charging base." RP-VITA is currently waiting on FDA approval for use inside a hospital, which its creators expect by the end of the year.

4 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. Depressing by markdavis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sorry, but to me this is just depressing. We already have to lots tons of money to wait forever to see a LIVE doctor who can barely be bothered to listen or treat before flying out of the room to the next patient. So this is just want we need- make the experience even that much less functional, colder, and more remote.

    At this rate, I would do better to just sit at home, Google up all my symptoms and treat myself. Or at least just take my own vitals and video conference with a doctor. Then at maybe I can skip the hour wait in the freezing waiting room with people coughing on me, kids screaming, and a TV blaring on some stupid reality show (or worse, some "public health message loop").

    Sorry for the rant, just have not had a lot of good experiences with doctors or doctor offices over the last few years.

    1. Re:Depressing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The United States is enamored with the idea that technology will -- somehow, someday -- fix our broken health care system. It won't, and it can't. It's a profoundly social problem.

    2. Re:Depressing by ceoyoyo · · Score: 5, Informative

      This isn't to replace GPs. It's so that smaller hospitals can benefit from some of the things that a large hospital can offer.

      As an example, suppose you're walking along and suddenly have trouble speaking. Your significant other / friend / whatever is concerned and takes you to your small local hospital. The doctors at that hospital suspect you're having a stroke, but no specialized stroke neurologist works there. So they call one, who examines you using the robot. He determines you are having a stroke, and imaging confirms it is ischemic. Since it's within the three hour window, he orders a local nurse to give you an IV injection of tPA, a clot busting drug. She does, monitors you, and you improve.

      Without the robot you would have to have been transferred to a larger hospital to see someone qualified to order tPA treatment, and by the time that happened it might well have been outside the three hour window.

  2. Oblig by SrLnclt · · Score: 5, Funny

    Please state the nature of the medical emergency.