|
|
Video Robots are Helping Doctors Take Care of an Increasing Number of Aging Patients
Seniorscopie
August 22, 2005
Robot-assisted exchanges are being repeated in dozens of hospitals across the country by doctors who use the machines to make their rounds, monitor intensive-care units, respond to emergency calls and consult with other physicians. Skeptics fear that the technology is further depersonalizing health care.
Proponents say this and other new "telemedicine" technologies are allowing doctors to use their time more efficiently and serve more patients, often at odd hours or in remote places where the sick would otherwise have a hard time seeing a doctor.
Skeptics, however, fear that the technology is further depersonalizing health care, accelerating the trend of doctors spending less and less time with their patients, and eroding what remains of the doctor-patient relationship.
According to J.D.Linkous, a Stanford University bioethicist, this a triumph of the model of medicine that has abandoned the idea of personal interaction and providing comfort in favour of a model of the patient-physician interaction as essentially an exchange of information.
Faces can be seen but there is no touch, no laying on of hands, no personal contacts. People are increasingly isolated in a sea of technology.
Robots are turning up in more medical roles. Some help surgeons perform procedures, especially those requiring extreme precision. Others ferry supplies and equipment around hospitals and even dispense medication.
Pittsburgh researchers are testing the Nursebot to lead nursing home residents to physical therapy sessions and remind them to take their medicine.
GeckoSystems Inc. (Ga) plans to soon begin marketing its CareBot to help nurses, doctors and relatives monitor and care for the elderly at home.
Face-to-face encounters between doctors and patients are increasingly giving way to technology in other ways, with the goal of avoiding frustrating telephone tag, long drives to the office and time wasted sitting in waiting rooms.
Physicians are turning to e-mail to reach and respond to patients. Hospitals, clinics and doctors groups are setting up secure Internet portals allowing patients and doctors to consult electronically.
The Washington Post (Video Robots Redefine "TV Doctor"; 06/07/2005) writes that in the District of Columbia and almost every state, patients also are "meeting" with their doctors from afar through dedicated telemedicine networks.
The need, proponents say, is increasing as the population ages and further strains a system already experiencing a shortage of doctors and nurses.
The approach may be especially useful for caring for the increasing number of elderly people trying to remain in their homes. Some nursing services are installing video phones for clients, some equipped with stethoscopes and other devices that patients can use to regularly send crucial medical information, such as heart rates, blood pressure and blood sugar levels.
|
|
