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AIAAIC-0249

Medical robot tells man he is dying

A man suffering from lung failure was told he was going to die by a doctor talking through a robot-mounted video screen at a Kaiser Permanente hospital in Fremont, California. Instead of being informed by a qualified doctor, 79-year-old Quintana was told of his fate through a RP-VITA telepresence robot equipped with a video screen. Quintana's family was devastated by the incident, and implored the hospital to use human-beings to deliver news of this type. Hospital staff said they were acting in accordance with a new Kaiser Permanente policy. However, a company spokesperson said in a statement it was a 'highly unusual circumstance,' and that it would use it 'as an opportunity to review our practices and standards with the care team.' System 🤖 RP-VITA product video Kaiser Permamente website Kaiser Permanente Wikipedia profile Operator: Kaiser Permanante Medical Center Developer: InTouch Health; iRobot Country: USA Sector: Health Purpos e: Inter act with patients remotely Technology: Robotics Issue: Ethics Transparency:

Date it happened
2019-03-01
Organisation involved
Kaiser Permanante Medical Center
Product, system or model
RP-VITA
Where this came from
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This incident was imported from AIAAIC and is used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Our additions to it — the structured fields, the translation, the checks against other reports — are published under the same licence.

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