Robotic Blogs

Wu Ronghua U036423A
Having Remote Presence Robots in the neurosurgery intensive care unit(ICU) is the way to allow doctors to communicate more conveniently with the patients, family members and the staffs. As there is a serious lack in intensivists, the physicians who specialize in the care of critically ill patients, these RP-6 mobile robots proved to be helpful to extend the reach of the intensivists. These robots provide more "presence" of the physicians. The robot is about 5-foot-6-inch tall robot and displays the physician face on the monitor screen. The patient then will interact, speaks and hears with the physician through these robots. The robots can also move closer to the patients and zoom in on the patients or the monitors at the side, move to the patient’s record, X-rays, test reports to facilitate the doctors to view them. The physicians can do all this with the control of a joystick in either in their office or even at home. The presence of these intensivists is said to improve patients to reduce care, thereby reducing the stay of the patients and also the cost of their staying. These robots can also allow patients to access directly to medicals experts around the world so that they seek medical advice from them. They can also allow patients to interact with doctors who have performed their surgery, even if the doctors cannot be physically at the patient's bedside. Through surveys, such robots have been well received and some patients even prefer such robots to real doctors.