FDA Approves First Medical Robot for Hospital Use

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently made a landmark announcement when it approved the first medical robot to be deployed in the nation’s hospitals. The RP-VITA robot is a mobile telemedicine device that can move from room to room, allowing bed-ridden patients to speak with a doctor somewhere else in the hospital or even at a remote location throughout the country or world.

The new medical device was created by Santa Barbara, Calif.-based telemedicine company InTouch Health and iRobot, the robotics company located in Bedford, Maine, which introduced the idea of in-home robots when launching its Roomba automated vacuum cleaner. The futuristic technology combines iRobot’s autonomous navigation and mobility technology with InTouch Health’s telemedicine expertise and electronic medical record functionality.

Robotics has come a long way since the original Roomba, which functioned by using physical sensors that reacted when the machine impacted another surface, hit the market. Essentially, the robot had to come in contact with a surface to know it was there, whether it was bumping into a wall or sensing the absence of flooring underneath it when it encountered a stairway. The RP-VITA is a different class of machinery. The sophisticated robot uses lasers, sonar and various sensors to actually map out the area around it, choose an optimal path and react to unforeseen obstacles, like humans walking down the same corridors.

Unlike a predator drone or other military-based robotic technologies, the RP-VITA will not require a doctor to grab a joystick and steer the machine around. Physicians will simply indicate which room the robot should go to, and the device will find its own way to the correct location.

The RP-VITA uses an iPad interface, which will hopefully make it easier for medical staff and patients to get used to, as many hospitals have already begun integrating tablets into their day-to-day operations. The new robot will cost hospitals somewhere between $4,000 and $6,000 per month to operate.

Colin Angle, chairman and CEO of iRobot, in a statement explained, “FDA clearance of a robot that can move safely and independently through a fast-paced, chaotic and demanding hospital environment is a significant technological milestone for the robotics and healthcare industries. There are very few environments as difficult to maneuver as that of a busy ICU or emergency department. Having crossed this technology threshold, the potential for self-navigating robots in other markets, and for new applications, is virtually limitless.”