TECHNOLOGY FOR CHANGE

The Robot Will See You Now: Intelligent Machines Boost Health Care

Stan Gibson | Date: 09-16-09 | Comments

By performing functions such as delivering meds and enabling videoconferencing, robots are freeing doctors and other health care professionals to spend more time with patients.

While the nation debates the future of health care, the robots are quietly taking over.

That may be a bit of an overstatement, but it�s certainly true that robots are being used for more medical tasks than ever before. In some cases, these are basic but essential tasks that free up trained professionals to perform higher-skilled tasks.

For example, several hospitals have begun relying on TUG, a small mobile device that pulls a cart full of patient medicines from room to room, announcing its presence with a recorded human voice and waiting a few minutes until a caregiver can take the meds and give them to the patient. TUG is made by Aethon, a Pittsburgh-based health care logistics provider.

�It saves time, money and improves safety. It lets pharmacy technicians do what they�re trained to do rather than run down the hall. It assures drugs will get out to the patient floors more reliably,� said Dr. Stephen Schimpff, retired CEO of the University of Maryland Medical Center and author of the book �The Future of Medicine�Mega Trends in Healthcare.�

Schimpff�s book chronicles other breakthroughs as well. In one application, �Mr. Rounder,� a remote-controlled computer sporting a white doctor�s coat and a stethoscope, pops into a patient�s room and enables the patient�s doctor to pay a visit via videoconference.

�It lets the doctor check on a patient remotely. Some doctors may have just one patient on a Saturday and may not want to go in�this takes care of that problem. In another case, a doctor could go to a convention on the other side of the country, but could check up on a patient�s bandage,� Schimpff explained.

When a nurse or other attendant places a stethoscope on a patient, the remote doctor can hear the patient�s heart and lungs. A remote-controlled camera can zoom in on parts of the patient�s body to give the doctor a closer look. �It�s limited in cost, but improves patient communication,� said Schimpff.

Whatever happens in the current medical insurance debate, Schimpff believes that technology is helping to change the patient-doctor relationship for the better. While once the doctor was the unquestioned authority, wider distribution of medical information and the increase in robotic automation are enabling doctors to come down off their pedestals to spend more time with their patients�both remotely and in person�on a far more equal footing than ever before.