Robot Visits Patients When Doctor Can't

BALTIMORE -- Has it come to this? Robots standing in for doctors at the hospital patients' bedside?
Not exactly, but some doctors have found a way to use a videoconferencing robot to check on patients while they're miles from the hospital.

This photo taken in Dec. 2006 and released by the Sinai Hospital of Baltimore on Friday, July 13, 2007, shows Cindy Parslow RN, BSN, left, and Vera Taylor, RN, right, as they talk to Dr. Alex Gandsas, MD, on the screen, using a videoconferencing robot at the Sinai Hospital of Baltimore. Outfitted with cameras, a screen and microphone, the joystick-controlled robot is guided into the rooms of Dr. Gandsas' patients at Sinai Hospital, where he speaks to them as if he were right there. (AP Photo/Sinai Hospital of Baltimore) (AP)
Michael Chan, executive vice president with InTouch Technologies, said his company's device allows physicians to "be in more than one place at once."