Robot Connects Team To Specialists In California

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

At Lompoc Valley Medical Center, “Dr. Robot” is connecting remote neurologists to doctors via telemedicine

“Dr. Robot,” as it’s called, is helping the lone neurologist at Lompoc Valley Medical Center in California connect to specialists for consults at any time, day or night.

According to Fierce Health IT, Dr. Robot is a five-foot-tall device with a video screen for a head. The technology allows remote neurologists the ability to help examine patients and to participate in treatment decision making from afar.

When a person with signs of stroke or other neurological problems is brought to LVMC, the robot disengages from its station and navigates its way through the hospital to the patient’s room, where the neurologist is able to review scans and virtually examine the patient.

“I think it’s really helpful to us as emergency room physicians to have the ability to talk to somebody else about these problems, instead of basically being by ourselves,” said Dr. Steven Reichel, medical director of the LVMC emergency room. “Now we have somebody else who we can get information from, and that’s their primary focus, to treat brain problems.”

The Lompoc Record reports the device has been a welcome addition to the hospital since its arrival in December. “I think it’s a really huge benefit for the community — and for us as physicians,” said Reichel. “It gives our patients the best care possible.”

From December 2014 through May 2015, LVMC transferred 25 patients with neurological problems to another hospital for treatment. According to the staff, Dr. Robot has been deployed 42 times for consults, including 31 for “code-stroke” activation, which is the hospital’s stroke alert system, during the five months the robot has been active. Staff members like Yvette Cope, an assistant nurse executive at LVMC, believe that had Dr. Robot been in place previously, “we maybe could’ve been able to save on the first day here.”