Robo-docs: RP-VITA bot now in 7 hospitals
RP-VITA is designed to make doctors more widely available through telepresence.
(Credit: iRobot)
Would you mind if your doctor were treating you through a display on top of a robot? What if that display could save your life?
Well, that could be the case if you find yourself at one of seven U.S. and Mexican hospitals that have deployed the RP-VITA telepresence robot, which obtained FDA approval earlier this year as the first of its kind.
RP-VITA, which stands for Remote Presence Virtual + Independent Telemedicine Assistant, is now on hand at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, five other medical centers in the U.S., and one in Mexico City, developers iRobot and InTouch Health announced today.
“During a stroke, the loss of a few minutes can mean the difference between preserving or losing brain function,” the companies quoted Paul Vespa, director of neurocritical care at the Reagan Center, as saying in a release.
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