RP-VITA telemedicine robot may be coming to your hospital

The next time you go to the hospital, you may run into a telemedicine robot like the RP-VITA.  At ATA 2013,  InTouch Health & iRobot announced the first hospitals and medical centers that will be using the RP-VITA telemedicine robot. Here's a snippet from their press release:


Austin, TX (May 6, 2013) -- Top academic medical centers and leading healthcare systems across North America are now introducing their patients to RP-VITATM, the first FDA-cleared telemedicine robot that combines state-of-the-art telecommunications and AutoDrive technology. InTouch Health, the leader in acute care telemedicine, today announced at the 18th Annual American Telemedicine Association’s International Conference the first hospitals to integrate this new telemedicine platform into their TeleStroke, TeleICU, TelePsych, and TelePediatric programs. RP-VITA, jointly developed by InTouch Health and iRobot Corp. (NASDAQ: IRBT), a leader in delivering robotic technology-based solutions, is a class apart from any other telemedicine device available, providing a new level of ease of use and independence that frees doctors and nurses to focus solely on patient care and to forget the technology.

The first hospitals that will get RP-VITA include:



Dignity Health
Sacramento, CA

Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian
Orange County, CA

Instituto de Salud del Estado de México
Mexico City, Mexico

Ohio State Wexner Medical Center
Columbus, OH

Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center
Burbank, CA

Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
Los Angeles, CA

St. Mary’s Medical Center
Huntington, WV

iRobot Ava: platform for telemedicine robotics

iRobot is expanding beyond robotic vacuum cleaners and military robots. Get ready to see iRobot Ava platform in the health care setting.

iRobot Ava™ is a breakthrough mobile robotics platform developed to help robot designers, application developers and market innovation specialists expedite the pursuit of practical, affordable mobile robotic solutions.

iRobot is collaborating with InTouch Health to develop some novel telemedicine robots. Soon, your local hospitals will have Roombas, Scoobas, and Avas roaming your floors!

Robots in hospitals improving patient safety

I love robots. R2-D2 from Star Wars is my favorite robot. When I retire someday, I'm planning on building a full-size R2-D2 that will move around my house and fetch me my slippers.

We're seeing more robots in the hospitals. Most of these won't be roaming the halls (except for the slow robot that delivers the mail), but quite a few are being used to dispense medications and to perform other tasks in the inpatient setting. A few months ago, Forbes had an article titled, "R2-D2 Has Your Pills." They mentioned how the Robot-Rx (medication-dispensing robot made by McKesson) is being used in a John Muir hospital to reduce medical errors related to drug dispensing. According to that article:

McKesson has installed 400 medicine-dispensing robots at hospitals around the country. They cost between $750,00 and $1 million. McKesson builds the robots at a factory in Pittsburgh, PA. 

Speaking of robots, I'm still waiting to see some iRobot Roomba and Scooba robots in the hospitals. They're great for floor cleaning. Speaking of iRobot, did you know that several members of the management team and Board Members are MIT graduates? No surprise, is it? Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like had I pursued a career in robotics and biomechanical engineering.