Robots in White Coats and Stethoscopes

If the next physician you see has a robotic bedside manner, it could be for good reason: That doctor might actually be a robot. Surgical robots that help perform delicate, minimally invasive procedures have been around for more than 15 years. Now, telemedicine robots are roving through emergency rooms, allowing remote specialists to rapidly assess and diagnose patients experiencing strokes when every second counts. Here’s a glimpse at how robotic devices add another dimension to health care.

Tele-stroke networks allow patients at satellite facilities, for instance an isolated rural hospital, to receive immediate consultations from specialists based at major medical centers, says Gerry Popolow, vice president for international client services with InTouch Health, which implements and manages a global tele-stroke network and makes a range of health-care robotic devices.

One such network hub is Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, with 37 member hospitals. “There’s a specialty neurologist – a tele-stroke neurologist – on call at the big hospital,” Popolow says. “And their response time is amazing, which is vitally important because in stroke treatment, physicians say, ‘Time is brain.’” This network covers the three-state area of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Robot-assisted care can start at home, as paramedics respond to an emergency call. A portable device, the Xpress, allows first responders to quickly connect a patient with a physician in the emergency department. That physician uses patient-provider access software – installed on a laptop, iPad or iPhone – to get an instant read on the patient’s condition…