Robot Doctor

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, an avatar is an icon, graphic, or other image by which a person represents himself or herself on a communications network or in a virtual community. It’s common knowledge that people create avatars for use in role playing games, such as World of Warcraft.

Courtesy Google Images

iRobot, a Bedford, Massachusetts company, develops robots for mundane tasks such as vacuuming and the not-so-mundane, such as bomb disposal. They have partnered with InTouch Health and created a robot avatar, RP-Vita. The RP-Vita is about 5’ 4” tall and according to InTouch Health was designed “to transform the delivery of acute care by expanding the use of remote consults and increasing the workflow efficiency.”

Courtesy Google Images

Basically, a screen is mounted atop a mobile base. This screen allows a doctor to interact, remotely, with a patient. According to DVICE, medical professionals will be able to control the unit with iPads and monitor patients with two-way cameras. They’ll be able to perform exams and diagnose anything from a melanoma to dilated pupils. Seven hospitals in North America have started using the RP-Vita.

I don’t like it. If a patient’s condition required a consult from some expert who was half a world away or if patient’s were in quarantine, I could understand the need for the RP-Vita . But it seems like the vision is for medical professionals to conduct the bulk of their examinations remotely.

If I were lying in a hospital bed and a machination rolled in and started to examine me I think I’d find that disconcerting. What the hell, my doctor can’t even see me in person? It seems like this is a step toward removing personal contact between physician and patient. I don’t like it.

Is anyone concerned that the future of medicine could be getting too impersonal?