By
John Pulley
Children's Hospital Boston is testing a small fleet of robots that go home with patients who have been discharged from the hospital. The robots use two-way video and audio technology that lets doctors assess how surgical scars are healing, for example, and whether to prescribe certain medications, the Boston Globe reports.
The hospital plans to test the robots with 40 patients in the first stage of a pilot program. The next stage is to test whether a robotic companion will allow patients to go home earlier, according to the newspaper.
At 4 ½ feet tall, the robots are about the size of a child. They whir around on two wheels and have a 5-inch video screen for a face. Hospital personnel remotely control the robots, made by Vgo Communications, Inc. of Nashua, N.H., the Globe reports. The robot communicates over high-speed 4G cellphone networks, so patients don't need high-speed or Wi-Fi Internet connections.
Later generations of the robot likely will measure vital signs and perform blood and urine tests, Dr. Hiep T. Nguyen, director of Children's Hospital's Robotic Surgery Research and Training Center, tells the newspaper.
Other companies also are working on robots for the health-care market, according to the Globe, among them iRobot Corp. of Bedford, Mass., and InTouch Health of Santa Barbara, Calif.
"This technology is definitely where health care is going," Jorge Sanchez de Lozada, assistant IT director at the Institute of Health Professionals at Massachusetts General Hospital, tells the paper.
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