iRobot's Robot Doc Is Ready To Heal You 53
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.
Re:Depressing (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.