Cornerstone Hospital launches Bentley, 1st robot doctor

Name: Imo Aisiku

Company: Idoc Tele Health and Cornerstone Hospital

Title: Physician at Idoc Tele Health solutions

Tell us about Bentley.

Bentley is the new wave of tele medicine. The best way that I try to explain it to people is that Bentley is a physician’s avatar. Through technology we can bring the doctor to the patient from multiple locations because the robot serves as a live communication tool between the patients, the doctor and the nurse. So we use the robot to examine, visualize and manage the patients at Cornerstone Hospital.

What inspired you to create such a unique concept?

It was interesting in the since that I had some exposure to tele medicine in the past but the robot concept came about while working with NFL defensive tackle Amobe Okoye who had developed  a very severe neurological disorder. After spending several months in my intensive care unit I needed to get him to another facility and I chose cornerstone. Although we didn’t have it then, I began to look into the robot technology as a means for me to maintain care for my client while I worked at various medical facilities.

What obstacles did you face while trying to get this venture off the ground?

I think because the idea of a robot taking care of somebody is so very foreign. People still think of Will Smith in IRobot, so breaking those stigmas has been a challenge. At the same time, whether you are talking about the first CD player to MP3 player or the first VCR to DVD player, at some point, technology has to grow.

Where do you hope to see this brand in the next 10 years?

I’d like to see robots like Bentley in patient homes. We have to find a way to help our patients outside of the hospital because everything is growing. The population is growing and so are the numbers of sick people. Unfortunately the number of the sick and the number of operating doctors are not growing at the same rate. In the next 10 years I would hope to not only reach the homes but also incorporate the first response and rescue side of healthcare such as ambulances. If you have a robot that is portable and can diagnose and deliver medicine to the patient before they reach the hospital would be monumental. The time that it takes to reach a patient and get to the hospital is the most critical time. To think that we can cut screening, paperwork and admittance time from three hours to three minutes with technology like this is proof that the growth of this is going to be phenomenal.

View photos of Bentley the Robot at the Cornerstone launch event

For more information, visit:

https://www.idoctelehealth.com/ https://www.chghospitals.com/medcenter/