Are robots replacing doctors?

October 7th, 2010

DEAR DR. GOTT: I recently read an article in The New York Times where doctors are communicating with their patients long distance via robot machines. What has the medical industry come to?

DEAR READER: I, too, read the article and was aware of robotic medicine but still rather amused by the changes that have occurred since I became a physician.

Robotic medicine is the wave of the future. When a robot is brought to a patient’s bedside, a physician can speak with him or her, observe movements and reactions, provide laboratory or X-ray test results, and prescribe — all from hundreds of miles away. The unit resembles a vacuum cleaner and comes with a top that looks like a television so the patient and physician can see and communicate with each other. These mobile units are available in hundreds of hospitals across the country, and they become the eyes and ears of the physician involved.

Robots are not a new technology. They have been used for years in a great variety of venues, from informational research in outer space to diagnosing a sick patient. Law-enforcement agencies and the military use robots to disarm bombs and carry out other dangerous missions. They even helped seal the BP well in the Gulf of Mexico — a mile below the surface! The possibilities are endless. Are there pitfalls? Sure. A robot can’t approach a hospital bed and hold out a warm hand for support. It can’t wipe the brow of a lonely older patient whose family has yet to visit. That and more reasons are the trade-offs. But I guess we will all have to adapt when we expect our doctor to be tall and handsome, not short and metal.