Children’s National Health System Welcomes Dr. Bear Bot

Children’s National Health System, one of the United States’ top five pediatric hospitals and the #1 ranked newborn care center, received a little extra love this Valentine’s Day. The cardiac ICU hosted a reveal party for a new InTouch Health Vita Device, which received an endearing name chosen by patients and staff: Dr. Bear Bot.

The name was revealed to more than 220 patients over the hospital’s closed-circuit television and radio station, WPAW, with many eager patients excitedly listening in.

Dr. Bear Bot connects patients, nurses, and physicians with Executive Director of Telemedicine, Ricardo Munoz, MD and cardiologist and Associate Medical Director of Telemedicine, Alejandro Lopez-Magallon, MD. Together, they enable the delivery of efficient, high-quality care through the use of telehealth.

Dr. Munoz and Dr. Lopez-Magallon are able to monitor patients’ vitals from a single, nine-screen virtual command center. They’re even able to remotely navigate Dr. Bear Bot into each patient’s room to monitor those who are recovering from congenital heart surgery, were flown in for an emergency diagnostic procedure, or are in the process of receiving a transplant.

“We find the patient-centered platforms and this new technology saves families’ time and we’re looking forward to studying internal models to see how this can help our doctors, enabling us to do even more,” said Shireen Atabaki, MD, MPH, an Emergency Medicine Specialist who manages Children’s National’s ambulatory virtual care program.

Over the course of this year, Children’s National will measure and evaluate models of efficiency in the tele-cardiac ICU, but as for this Valentine’s Day morning, Dr. Bear Bot’s main focus was to deliver robot-themed Valentine’s Day cards to the patients of Children’s National.

Although the telehealth device enables local care teams to provide increased access to specialty healthcare in an effort to improve patient outcomes, the device also spreads love and joy to the pediatric patients, keeping spirits high this Valentine’s Day.