POWAY: PPH shows off robot "doctor"

Automated machines lets doctors visit patients remotely

By ANDREA MOSS - Staff Writer | Thursday, August 14, 2008 6:49 PM PDT ∞

POWAY ---- The future arrived at Pomerado Hospital on Thursday when officials showed off a $300,000 robot that lets doctors "visit" patients without stepping foot into the hospital.

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Introduced to a roomful of reporters as the hospital's newest medical staff member, Robot RP-7 is a 5-foot-5-inch, 220-pound wireless machine that seemingly rolls easily around the hospital at up to 2 mph on its own, stopping to check on and chat with patients along the way.

In reality, there is a wizard behind the curtain.

Dr. Ben Kanter demonstrated the machine's "remote presence" capabilities by using a joystick to send the robot from the hospital's third-floor conference room to the second-floor bedside of Intensive Care Unit patient Phyllis Rodriguez. Kanter stayed behind in the conference room.

When the robot ---- dubbed "Iris" and dressed up in a white doctor's coat, stethoscope and hospital identification badge ---- arrived at Rodriguez's bedside, she saw Kanter's face on a flat-screen monitor that serves as the machine's "head."

Two camera lenses mounted atop the screen and a speaker system built into the robot's chest let the physician see how Rodriguez looked and to zoom in on her face and talk with her and her husband, Jose.

Kanter asked Phyllis Rodriguez the same questions doctors everywhere ask when they're making patient rounds.

"How are you feeling today?" the physician asked. "Any new problems I should know about?"

Rodriguez, who wound up in the hospital Aug. 1 after she contracted pneumonia and a bacterial infection, said the encounter was her first with the robot. She gave it high marks.

"I think it's really no different because they make it just as attentive as they are," she said, referring to the doctors. "It really doesn't bother me."

And although the robot lacks the "human touch" of a real-life physician, Rodriguez said, "That's good. Sometimes you just don't want to be touched."

The robot, which has an automatic sensor system that keeps it from bumping into things and the ability to tilt and turn its "head" virtually 360 degrees, can also use the screen to display X-rays and other diagnostic test results to patients or nurses.

Plugs in the back of the machine also allow information from an ultrasound or digital stethoscope to be fed into the robot, which relays the information back to the physician.

Nurse Joseph Parker, who was attending to Rodriguez, said Intensive Care Unit staff members believe the robot "will be extremely beneficial" because it can help the staff catch potential medical issues before they balloon into major problems.

One of half a dozen Pomerado Hospital physicians who started using the robot about two months ago, Kanter said the machine makes it possible for doctors to be in two places at once.

Palomar Pomerado Health, which owns and operates the hospital, is paying Santa Barbara-based robot creator and manufacturer InTouch Health $96,000 to lease the machine for a year, he said.

Any doctor armed with a laptop computer, Internet service and a headset can learn the basics of operating the robot from afar in about 20 minutes, he said.

Kanter said hospital officials already are convinced the robot has endless possibilities when it comes to improving the quality of health care and a patient's in-hospital experiences. He said, for example, that doctors can use the robot to quickly see and hear what's going on with a patient who suddenly develops medical complications in the middle of the night.

"It's the difference between picking up the phone and having somebody tell you what's wrong and seeing it for yourself," Kanter said.

Trauma patients and those having strokes are among the people who could get critical treatment faster if physicians use the robot for remote assessments and consultations, he said.

"Anywhere I have my laptop and access to the Internet, I have access to the robot," and by extension, the patient, Kanter said.

Plans for getting a robot for Palomar Medical Center in Escondido, which the district also owns and operates, are in the works, he said.

Contact staff writer Andrea Moss at (760) 739-6654 or amoss@nctimes.com.

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