Meet VGO: a new generation robot
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00:00Meet Vigo, your body on wheels.
00:18Vigo is a new generation communication robot that let people work even if they're thousands
00:23of miles away from their workplace through telepresence.
00:27It was introduced in the UAE by Amana Healthcare, which runs medical and rehabilitation hospitals
00:33in Al Ain and Abu Dhabi.
00:35Patient monitoring is one of many ways Vigo is being used by healthcare organizations
00:40to overcome resource issues.
00:42Remote visiting for the growing elder care market and medical staff training at a distance
00:47or other popular applications.
00:49There's a lot of different things that we will be able to use Vigo for here in Amana.
00:53For example, a lot of our patients, adults and pediatrics, have got long-term debilitative
00:57diseases.
00:58They're not as mobile or as active as they would like to be.
01:00Sometimes the families are based in Dubai or in Abu Dhabi and they can't always be here
01:04on the facility.
01:05So we can give those families access to Vigo so that if you've got something important
01:09that they want to discuss.
01:10Standing five feet tall and 13 inches wide, the little fellow works on Wi-Fi and broadband
01:16networks and has a high-resolution camera.
01:19It is basically a sophisticated communication machine that allows people to move around
01:24in a workplace even if they're in a distant location.
01:27Medical professionals can therefore work with patients from around the world, lowering costs.
01:32It also provides an emotional anchor to family members who are able to be with their loved
01:36ones admitted to a faraway hospital.
01:39It is the next best thing to being in the actual workplace.
01:43It also allows us to interact with physicians with international specialties.
01:48So we've got patients who've got degenerative diseases that are quite unique to the region
01:52and we can link in with specialties across the whole world.
01:54All we need to do is give them access to our Vigo robot.
01:57They download program log on to Vigo and we can communicate with them in real time about
02:02how to interact with and manage these patients.
02:05The other thing that it will allow us to do is we're going across the spectrum of sub-acute
02:10care, long-term care and into home care.
02:13So if we've got patients who are in a home care setting and they have a concern about
02:18the care that they're receiving, they can link in to us either through our Vigo robot
02:22here to communicate to us or we can have a Vigo robot in their home and we can interact
02:28with them in real time regarding concerns that they have.
02:31So you can do amazing things like review medications, review wounds, etc, rather than having to
02:37send somebody to the facility, you can do it immediately if the family so wish.
02:41Vigo has not only enhanced patient-doctor interface, but is expected to be the future
02:45mode of communication in medical facilities, providing instant connectivity with medical
02:50professionals globally and helping manage hospitals better.
02:54Irish Iden Belieza for Gulf News.