The robots operate primarily as a sort of mobile video communications, allowing patients and doctors communicate with each other. However, eventually, will help health services to address millions of people taking their medicines and dinner to the sick, and even temperature, pulse and blood to them.
"This technology allows professionals to assist health services to persons residing in remote locations in far less time and reduce delays in medical care in health centers," said Loren Shook, CEO of Silverado Senior Living Company , which is set up to assist people suffering from Alzheimer's disease. At the clinic operating in the town of Silverado Calabasas, in the U.S. state of California is conducting the test of a robot made by InTouch Health Company, which is designed to allow real time communications, person to person, between doctors and patients, and even between patients and their families.
The mobile robot, called "Companion" (guest) has placed a video camera that films the patient's face while the doctor treating you or the nurse assigned to the patient appears on a television screen placed in the "head" of the robot. The device, controlled by a console located in another area of the hospital, using a program and a wireless Internet, banda ancha, to allow the patient and the physician or nurse to see and talk directly with one another.
When approaching his death, people affected by Alzheimer's disease in an advanced stage have lost almost a third of their brain, which significantly hamper their ability to understand many things, especially if they are new to them. However, patients in the clinic Silverado seem to have welcomed the robot. "When one gets older, it is much harder to adapt to change," Shook said, admitting that their initial concerns were that the robot might frighten some people.
"To our delight, some patients reported to the robot and started to laugh. Others called him and wanted to know his name," he explained. The device is being used by other experts at the headquarters of Silverado in San Juan Capistrano, California, to train workers in the clinics to provide help to patients with motor problems such as difficulty walking.
Scarce resources in the health sector.
"The goal is to extend the reach of health services. A shortage of nurses and cuts in government reimbursements are eroding and the system will still worse," said Yulun Wang, executive director of the company and founder of InTouch Computer Motion Inc., which makes robotic systems used in surgery procedures. The American Association of Retired Persons predicted that by 2010, the number of people in that category in the U.S. will be around 40 million and 70 million by 2030.
"Compared with 50 years ago, people can expect to live 15 years longer, but at the same time the costs of health care for the elderly continue to rise," said Wang, who believes that robots offer a solution that leverages the latest technology, linking it to the Internet to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the system. However, some key aspects such as how a doctor can attend to a patient through the robot, rather than in person-have yet to be determined accurately.
"We anticipate that the robot will pay what it costs far," said Shook, arguing that the use of the device will reduce the costs of travel and the need for doctors visits made to emergency services, as well as improved training of medical staff . Robot pushing a wheelchair technology is still in a stage of development, said Wang "First there will be only communication, but the second will be the ability of handling. Eventually, the robot must be able to manipulate objects such as a wheelchair, and even be used in private residences," he said.
The "Companion" have not yet received approval from the Food and Drug Administration of United States (FDA), but the company believes it eventually will and considers the risks that the Robots mistakes or malfunctions are rare. Executives stressed that the company that manufactured the "Companion" uses the same technology as that used robots to perform surgery, and recalled that they have worked impeccably.
An important aspect to be resolved is how to affect patients being treated from a distance and how much lower the quality of health services that the physician is not present to respond to a patient. Remote treatment also presents the question whether physicians are more likely to fail to perceive symptoms that could be important to detect a specific disorder and, being near the patient, could be seen more clearly.
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