Liberal Talk Radio

In the future, robots will be everywhere:

Long Island Jewish Hospital patient John Hevrank was able to tell his doctor he was feeling better after bladder cancer surgery last week, even though his physician was in another building.

Hevrank was actually speaking to one of three 5-foot tall robots that the hospital is testing. The robot enables doctors to make rounds remotely with their patients using computers.

The robots are equipped with a video camera, speakers and a flat-panel monitor that displays the doctor’s face in real-time. To add a human touch, the machines wore white lab coats.

Physicians maneuver the robots using a joystick and can see the patient through a camera equipped on their personal computers.

And if you were worried about the lack of human touch, worry not — because everyone loves robots:

[Dr. Louis Kavoussi, chairman of the urology department for the North Shore-LIJ health system] said he uses the robot on weekends, when he usually goes to his home in Baltimore, to make rounds.

“We haven’t had any negative impact,” he said, noting that a hospital study showed patients liked the robots as much as a physical doctor checking up on them.

“They want to see the robot,” he said. “There’s a bit of that wow factor and novelty factor.”

“People are usually so excited and brightened by the robot,” said Dr. Lee Richstone, an attending urology physician who was in Hevrank’s hospital room when the patient had a conversation through the machine. “It brings a smile to everybody’s face.”

If robots can make people feel this way then people must have a seriously low opinion of doctors, no?