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MEDICAL ROBOT IS DOCTOR'S EYES ON THE
BATTLEFIELD -- Miami doctors could soon be
directing trauma cases more than 11,000 miles
away.
In a mock emergency, Dr. Antonio
Marttos Jr., seen in the monitor of the RP-7 robot above and
below, helps in treatment at the University of Miami/Jackson
Memorial Medical Center. (photo: PATRICK FARRELL / MIAMI HERALD
STAFF ) |
Story here...
http://www.miamiherald.co
m/news/miami-dade/story/798635.html
Story below:
Your comments accepted at bottom of
page.
-------------------------
MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY
Medical robot is doctor's eyes in battlefield
Miami doctors could soon direct trauma cases
abroad
BY FRED TASKER
ftasker@MiamiHerald.com
An American soldier is hit by enemy fire in Iraq. A Humvee speeds him to a
field hospital outside the combat area. He looks up groggily to see a
robot peering down at him.
''How ya doing, soldier?'' asks the robot. Its face is a TV monitor
displaying the image of an expert trauma surgeon sitting at a laptop in
the Ryder Trauma Center at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial
Medical Center, 11,200 miles away. The robot sends the soldier's image and
voice to the distant doctor.
Under the guidance of the Ryder surgeon, doctors and nurses in the distant
field hospital tend the soldier's wounds.
The robot doesn't touch the patient, but it lets the doctor from afar see
and hear the patient and the on-site doctors, and lets them see and hear
the distant doctor, carrying on a conversation.
It's a scenario that could happen within a year, under a final-phase trial
going on now at Ryder in conjunction with the U.S. Army Trauma Training
Center, the American Telemedicine Association, Qualcomm, which provides
the broadband connectivity, and InTouch Health, maker of the RP-7 robot.
''This is an incredible piece of technology,'' said Dr. Jeffrey Augenstein,
director of the trauma center. ``It's OnStar on steroids.''
In its final testing phase, the RP-7 is working at Jackson, rolling from
bed-to-bed doing patient rounds in the hospital's 25-bed Intensive
 Care
Unit. The robot stands about five-feet tall and rotates the TV monitor
that serves at its face much like a human head. It is communicating with
an expert doctor 100 feet away in the same building.
''So far it's been positive,'' Augenstein said. ``The patients see it as
TV. They're willing to suspend their disbelief.''
It's important, he said, that a doctor or nurse be there with the patient,
so the robot isn't acting alone.
With expert trauma care surgeons in ever shorter supply relative to
demand, doctors hope the robot will extend their reach, so a doctor could
examine a patient and give advice from his laptop in his office, at home,
even from a restaurant.
In a year or two, an InTouch spokesman said, the doctor might operate the
robot from his or her cellphone.
In a demonstration at Ryder on Wednesday, a pretend patient was rolled
into an emergency room, his neck in a brace, a bloody bandage on his head,
a gaping wound on his left thigh.
''I can't breathe,'' he said weakly, groaning.
''Relax. You're going to be all right,'' said Dr. Antonio Marttos,
director of trauma telemedicine -- the face and voice in the monitor.
As an in-person doctor and nurse took the patient's vital signs and
pretended to insert a breathing tube into his chest, the doctor in the
monitor checked off the information and gave advice.
Under development now is a robotic attachment that could act as a
stethoscope, ultrasound probe and other instruments, giving the distant
doctor more direct control.
 An RP-7 robot is on the ground now in Iraq, at a secret location, as part
of the trial. When it goes into use is up to the military.
Part of the trial at Ryder is to perfect communication between on-site and
distant doctors.
'When he says, `Snip that artery,' you want to be sure you're talking
about the same artery,'' Augenstein said.
The U.S. Army Training Center at Jackson provides trauma care training to
most of the combat medical units that go to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Augenstein hopes the robots can have local, civilian applications as well
-- for example, providing a higher level of expertise to Jackson's
satellite hospitals around the county. He said the state of Florida is
funding a program to interconnect the robots to 20 trauma care centers
around the state.
When in full service, the robot will lease to hospitals for $6,000 to
$8,000 a month.
-------------------------
posted by Larry Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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