[TigerLikesRooster]

This will be your boss in 20 years.:-)

[HiTech RedNeck]

Remember how George Jetson’s telecommunicator brought up pictures of Mr. Spacely, the boss of Spacely Sprockets?

That actually seemed to work pretty nicely. A whole robot sounds like overkill as long as everyone has one of those telecommunicator screens. (A second computer monitor would do.)

[dr_lew]

This contraption is a reinforcement of the medieval conception of a doctor’s authority to OVERSEE a proceeding. There must be four or five medically competent individuals in attendance just to roll this thing in. It’s sole purpose is the reinforcement of the elevated status of the physician, IMHO. I saw this on TV, and from my point of view as a prospective patient, I’d just as soon go ahead and die as subject myself to this absurd humiliation.

[Copernicus]

This sounds pretty good until you realize you could be in a holding cell interviewed by some interrogator miles away for some crime you know nothing about.

Frightening preview from 1976- THX 1138-The Movie

Best regards,

[Fresh Wind]

[gusopol3]

The robot is what allowed Dr. Shatzel to “be” in the patient’s room far away. From an earlier telephone conversation with the emergency room doctor, the patient’s condition had not been clear. But in speaking directly with the patient, examining his face and control of his hands and glancing with the camera at the cardiac monitor in the room, Dr. Shatzel could assess the stroke, he said, with the same acuity as if he were there. He instructed the staff to administer the drug.

It sounds like an excellent way to devalue the input of his colleague.

[CIB-173RDABN]

Those in the profession like to explain that medicine is an “art”, what they mean is given the same symptoms, two physicians are just as likely to come up with two different diagnosis, depending on their training, skill and experience.

It was once said that a real expert is someone who has already made the mistakes, and has learned from them.

Medicine is an accumulation of knowledge. No one person can know it all, which is why there are specializations within the field of medicine.

While no “man” can know it all, a machine, can be programmed with it all.

And, a machine can work 24/7, and is relatively cheap.

Do I want to trust my life to a machine? Too late for that decision, it has already been made. A lot of decisions flying a plane are made by a machine. A lot of decision driving (newer) cars are made by machines. I have no idea how many other things in our life are being controlled by machines.

We are living the future, we just sometimes don't recognize it.

Back to topic, I do not have any specific objections to a consulting physician being somewhere else, I in fact can see many benefits of such a service. Think of all the rural areas with little advance medicine in their community and the need to drive many miles to a regional hospital to be seen. A medical clinic staffed by Physician’s assistance or Nurse Practitioners could handle most routine stuff yet have available a consultant for the rare major stuff.

On the whole I see this as a positive trend.