Robotic Nation Evidence

It would appear that we are about to witness the arrival of the robotic hospital. For example, there is more news about doctors using tele-operated robots:

Robot doctor gets thumbs-up from patients



The doctor controls the robot from a console:



From the article:

Eighty percent of the patients taking part in the study thought the robo-doc would increase accessibility to their physician, while 76 percent believed having the robot available would permit physicians to provide more medical information.

"Most patients were very comfortable with this new technology," Kavoussi said.

Kavoussi owns InTouch Health stock and is a paid member of the company's scientific advisory board. The terms of the arrangement are being managed by the Johns Hopkins University in accordance with its conflict-of-interest policies.

InTouch leases the robots for $3,000 a month, which includes computer software, training and technical support. The robots are not for sale because the software is updated about once a month, said Timothy Wright, InTouch's vice president of marketing.

Meanwhile, at the hospital's pharmacy, robots are now delivering medicine to the nurses:

Advanced Technology Allows Robot to Steer Around Obstacles and Call for Elevators

From the article:

A robot named Mr. Gower now navigates the hallways of the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, riding elevators and opening doors on its own. Its mission is to deliver patient medications to nurses’ stations. The robot, named for the pharmacist in the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” has an onboard computer and advanced infrared “light whiskers” allowing it to steer around people and obstacles. The robot even speaks.

So now the robotic pharmacist can pick the medicine out and hand it to the robotic delivery robot. Soon a robot will take medicine directly to the patient.

Combine this with the previously mentioned automated intensive care unit.

Combine it with the previously mentioned robots for physical therapy.

Combine it with the tele-robotic surgeons now emerging in the operating room.

This is all rather remarkable when you consider that, just a year or so ago, hospitals had zero robots. We are about to see an explosion. See Robotic Nation for details.