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. [Read more...]