Updated June 08, 2015.

It sounds like an oxymoronic statement, but robots are enabling more human contact in healthcare.

Two of the most common challenges to healthcare delivery are resource scarcity and ever-rising costs.

Resource Availability and Cost Reduction

There are many examples of scarce resources in healthcare. Too often, the appropriate person or supply or specialized room environment is not available at the right place at the right time.

Large medical centers and hospitals based in major metropolitan areas have been gradually building satellite campuses in the suburbs since the early-2000's. Traffic, distance, and the cost for patients to access their medical care in downtown institutions has become prohibitive.

And healthcare organizations should be applauded for putting their patients first and trying to make healthcare more accessible to their surrounding communities. Most would argue that it is in fact more convenient for doctors to have just one building to work in everyday. That way, they can see lots of patients and perform their other work (department meetings, research, administrative work, teaching) from the convenience of one building, or at least one campus. Instead, by making satellite campuses that are more convenient to patients who live in the suburbs, the doctors must travel from inner city main campuses to suburban satellite campuses.

Travel often equates to waste. Waste, by definition, is a cost that no one wants to pay for.

Enter telemedicine.

Telemedicine connects the resource, the doctor or specialist in this example, to the patient and/or the clinician who is physically with the patient. Telemedicine can reduce the need to waste time travelling, thus improving resource availability for more people (patients and staff).

Telemedicine and the Human Touch

Companies like VGo Communications, and their VGo telepresence robot, are enhancing the connection between clinician and patient. For example, VGo Communications designed their VGo robot for:

• family and friends to make a virtual visit at the patient's bedside during visiting hours,
• interpretation services...an interpreter can interpret from the convenience of their desk and computer while connected to a clinician in a patient room or exam room,
• long distance patient-provider communication, enabling connected health, which has been shown to improve patient compliance to therapeutic regimens prescribed by their doctors,
• home recovery,
• virtual tours,
• and remote monitoring of a patient through its built-in camera.

In other words, what all of these capabilities enable are a more "high-touch" connection between the medical team and patient, and the hospitalized patient and distant family members. The ability to improve communication, and make medical teams, specialists, patients, and family members more connected and accessible, for the minimal capital cost of a robot solution, helps to improve healthcare quality while reducing wasteful costs like travelling and waiting.

Physical Features of the VGo Telepresence Robot

Robots serving healthcare organizations can take on many forms. Here are the features that VGo chose to incorporate into their design of the VGo robot:

• sensors
• speakers
• headlights
• two independently-controlled wheels for optimal mobility
• a camera and flash
• embedded WiFi
• 6" LCD screen
• touchpad
• microphones
• USB ports, a headphone jack, and a microphone jack

More about telemedicine and connected health:

• Get Engaged: How Mobile Health Technology Can Improve Patient Compliance
• Two Mobile Health Programs That Connect Patients to their Healthcare Team
• Four Connected Health Programs to Improve Healthcare Quality
• Mobile Health Technology Today
• Connected Health Solutions for Accountable Care Organizations
• 5 Things You Need to Know About Connected Health
• Improving Healthcare Quality with the Accountable Care Organization Model
• Connected Health--Current Challenges, Future Opportunities
• Connected Health--Current Challenges, Future Opportunities, Part 2
• An Online Management Tool to Share Your Diabetes Home Testing Results