With a robot there is no compassion, no human interaction, no kindness—all things that human docs bring to the physician-patient interaction. In this case it was a robot with a human physician on a screen discussing end of life. It didn’t work out well.
Check this situation out—a large healthcare system hospital featured a “tele robot” delivering end of life news to a patient. This interaction received widespread negative press at the time. In the interaction, a doctor is seen speaking through a video robot to the patient. “At some point the mask will not be enough,” he says about the patient’s likely impending death. Although the video display of a human doctor was there, the robot delivery removed all personal human qualities of the interaction (links below).
The best human physicians bring compassion, kindness, and empathy. When the interaction goes well they end up being the patient’s advocate and friend through toughest times in life. A robot? not so much.
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**This post and information contained in the platform is not a recommendation to treat specific patients. The information is useful to attendings, residents and students under supervision for educational reference.
