I work with robots. Your comments please...

No, though it may be tempting to, I'm not refering to some of the people that I work with as robots. I work with two models or should I say machines: InTouch's Dr. Robot(pictured above with me and patient) and Intuitive's Da Vinci(pictured below in an operating setting).
Pretty cool, huh? "Cutting edge" technology(sorry, that was too good to not put in that pun) in health care. The latest and best- to ensure that patients are getting the best treatments that are avalible. The Da Vanci is the product of technology developed by the military. The idea was that a surgeon/doctor could operate on a wounded person very quickly after being injured thus saving precious time during the 'golden hour'- and saving the person's life. As the picture shows, the surgeon still has to do the surgery, but can now do so at a distance. He can do this at a distance of feet or with oceans between him and his patient. The first transoceanic surgery was done with this technology about ten years ago between the US and France. The Da Vinci machines are now being sold to many hospitals near and far. At Johns Hopkins Hospital, we use them for surgical removal of the prostate- this is a treatment for prostate cancer. There are other surgical uses for this machine but it is mostly being sold as a tool for prostate cancer. My interaction with the Da Vinci robot is assisting the surgeon. As you can see in the top picture, there is an assistant with the 'patient'. This is where I am in when working with the robot. This person also uses tools to help remove the cancer from the patient.
In general the patient and his family are happy and excited about having their surgery with a robot. Why shouldn't he? He has cancer, and he is getting the latest treatment for it with the latest tools. By a similar measure, the patients that I see with Dr. Robot are equally enthusiatic about their machine. It is similar to the Da Vinci in that your doctor still does the work, although from a different location. He /She can do this because the robot is connected to a computer that the doctor has with a wireless internet connection. This connection allows one of the developers of the robot to access it in Baltimore from his home in South America. The robot, as configured now rounds(visits) patients, going from room to room, and allows the doctor to 'see', 'hear' and 'speak' to patients and staff. Future versions of this robot may have an 'arm' with which the doctor commanding it, can perform an ultra sound or other basic test. No one has spoken of using it for things like taking blood .
This past summer, the Washington Post came to Johns Hopkins Hospital to see the rounding robot in action. Dr Kavoussi and I saw a few of his patients with the reporters with us. You can read their article be clicking this link
The title of the published article is "Robot Doctors Replacing Real Doctors". The article has been picked up by dozens of other media. The tone appears to be of fear; that the doctors will be replaced by cold and inhumane decision making machines. (There are many movies and books that have picked up on this theme, 2001: A Space Odessey, Short Circuit, The Teminator series, The Matrix series.) They are also concerned about what may say about the current and future state of medicine.
Interesting. I once read part of a book that advanced the idea that doctors were becoming increasingly detached and distant from their patients the more that they use technology. The author said that this started with the invention and ricing popularity of the stethoscope. This seems more like a topic that includes the use of technology for communication in general- look at us now, trying to use a blog to keep in touch.
Back to the robots. Dr Kavoussi did a study- that is published, about how patients felt about the robot and if there was any difference in the care that the patient recieved when compared to a control group. He found that the patients liked the robot and had no more post operative complications than others who didn't see the robot(the control group). With the surgical robot, the pateints have a smaller blood loss- in general than an open prostatectomy. But there was no other difference- they left the hospital on the same day as patients that didn't get a surgical robot, same medications, same postoperative results. Right now, in general the robots are expensive to own, maintain and operate. But that is the case with all new technology and the price will go down with time and the use of this technology will broaden. Regardless, as one of the surgeons that I work with at the hospital said about using the robots, "The surgeon is still the one doing the surgery, not the robot." Which is a way of saying, a tool is only as good as the person and application it is used for. I wouldn't trust that a 8 year old weilding a nail gun to build me a good house.
What do you think? Would you allow this technology to be used on you or the care of your family? Do you think that you are getting better care if you are seen by a doctor that is using a robot?