Meet Penelope - The Robot Nurse

By Dr. Jay Adlersberg

(New York-WABC, June 16, 2005) — Seven's On Call with high-tech surgery - specifically, a robotic assistant that can recognize surgical instruments and hand them to the surgeons. How does it work?

That's right - more robotics in medicine. This one made her debut today, during a simple surgery at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Meet the robot called Penelope.

This is Penelope - not as chatty or mobile as other robots we've come to know and love, but today Penelope was the star of the show. She reported for work this morning and was shown off at the Columbia Presbyerian Medical Center's Allan Pavillion.

Dr. Michael Treat, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center: This is the first time, delivered surgical care."

Dr. Treat invented Penelope, in part with funding from the National Science Foundation.

Robots in the operating room are not new, some now assist surgeries. But Penelope's specific role will be handing over and keeping track of the surgical instruments.

Dr. Spencer Amory: "We used two different types of clamps, we used scissors, retractors."

Dr. Amory performed the simple surgery this morning with Penelope as part of the surgical team. The surgery removed a benign cyst from the arm of Iris Lopez, a patient at the hospital.

Penelope's software recognizes the voice command. She can scan the instruments and retrieve the correct one. But just how much work did she do this morning?

The scrub nurse is the person who normally hands over instruments. Doreen Taliaferro on today's team said she welcomed the assistance of Penelope, who will no doubt continue to evolve with the help of her inventor and the software team.