Doctors Eliminating Actual Visits

The Lincoln Journal Star Online has an interesting article about telepresence doctor bots. The idea is that a doctor can check up on his patients without ever leaving the office, by way of a two way video conferencing robot.

The way I see it, now he can bill you $500 dollars for that 5 minute (and yes, I've experienced that) visit without ever moving his butt ouf a chair.

"More than 35 hospitals are using the same type of robot roaming the halls at Johns Hopkins, paying $120,000 to buy or $4,000 a month to rent each unit. For $5,000, doctors can install a control station in their office, home or clinic."

By way of opposition to this new technology, someone said, "I work in a nursing home, and these people are desperate for touch," which they won't get with doctorbot.