It lacks the warm bedside manner of Marcus Welby or
Dr. Kildare, but a high-tech robot being tested at The
Johns Hopkins Hospital could be used to link patients with
their physicians in a whole new way.
Vaguely resembling a human torso, in a Star Wars R2D2
sort of way, the robot sports a computer screen for a head,
a video camera for eyes and a speaker for a mouth. It
walks, in a manner of speaking, on three balls; talks; and,
most importantly, listens. "That's because the robot is
directly linked to a real doctor who uses the robot as his
ears, mouth and eyes," said
Louis Kavoussi, a professor of
urology and a
pioneer in robotic surgery. "And patients love it. I was
very surprised how much our patients enjoy remote video
interactions via the robot."
According to Kavoussi, the positive response to the
robot supports the results of earlier studies done at Johns
Hopkins that found patients like using teleconferencing
technology, in addition to traditional bedside visits, to
communicate with their physicians. "Any technology that
facilitates communications between patient and physician is
welcome by both," he said.
Billed as the world's first remote-presence robot by
its manufacturer, InTouch Health, the robotic system works
something like an ultrarealistic video game, complete with
a joystick for moving it about. Looking at a computer
terminal, the doctor directing the robot sees what the
robot sees and hears what the robot hears. At the other
end, patients can see and talk to the doctor's face
displayed on a flat screen that sits on the robot's
"shoulders." All of this is connected to the Internet via
broadband and a wireless network.
"Many health care facilities and long-term care
communities lack the resources to maintain a staff of all
the medical specialists needed," Kavoussi said. "The robot
has the potential to fill this vacuum by enabling remote
medical experts to 'virtually' consult with caregivers,
patients, residents and family members at the point of
care, whenever and wherever they are needed."
So far, Dr. Robot has visited 20 patients, Kavoussi
said. "Generally, the robot has been used to check up on
patients in between when they would normally see a
physician. During these visits, we ask them about how they
are feeling, inspect their surgical sites to ensure they
are healing properly and answer any questions they
have."
Kavoussi points out that while robots will never
totally replace the human touch that physicians provide
their patients in person, they can augment the regular
interactions between patients and their physicians as well
as be useful when it's not practical or possible to
physically send in physicians, such as in military
operations, natural or bioterrorist disasters, at sea or in
other remote or underserved locations."
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