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UCLA Tests Robotic Monitoring


March 9, 2005

UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles has begun clinical tests of a robot designed to assist intensive care unit specialists with remote monitoring of hospitalized patients.

The robot's `head' is a monitor displaying live video and audio of the physician. A camera and microphone enable the physician to see and hear the patient on a desktop workstation. A joystick enables the physician to control the robot's movements and drive it to the patient's bedside, and to zoom-in the camera for a closer look at the patient or bedside monitors.

The robot--RP-6 from Santa Barbara, Calif.-based InTouch Health Inc.--already is used in a dozen hospitals in such areas as patient wards and emergency departments, according to the vendor. Tests at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore to help physicians remotely conduct rounds showed half of patients preferred a remote visit from their own physician to a `real' visit from another physician. UCLA is the first hospital to test the robot in the ICU.

UCLA's testing is funded through the U.S. Army's Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center at Fort Detrick, Frederick, Md. Additional information on the technology is available at www.intouchhealth.com.

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