If you have watched Star Wars, Star Trek and numerous other science fiction television shows and movies you’ve no doubt seen holograms. Holograms are 3-dimensional video images that have more depth (i.e., 3-dimensional) than conventional video displays.
Last year, some cancer patients in Tennessee and Mississippi got a startling offer: Instead of videoconferencing with oncology specialists located hours away, they could see a hologram doctor, courtesy of the same special effects that have projected the Jonas Brothers and other celebrities at concerts and live events.
Telemedicine is a way to see a doctor remotely. As an aside, I wonder if the people complaining that they are just as productive working remotely from home are the same ones who only want to see a doctor in person. Just a thought. In any case telemedicine has several small problems. Talking to a doctor on the phone is impersonal. Taking over Zoom allows you to see a face but not much else. Seeing a hologram is different.
“You get my body language, my hand motions, there’s expression that is able to be conveyed, which as you can imagine in an oncology visit is very important,” said Dr. Sylvia Richey, chief medical officer and medical oncologist at West Cancer Center.
You see the entire doctor, but does the doctor see the entire you?
Patients, however, aren’t being projected as holograms to the doctors. In the clinics, they communicate via camera—an intentional choice, Richey said, to give the patient, rather than the doctor, the more realistic experience.
“I can see the patient well enough to recognize a rash or a lump or a problem. I can’t feel everything. But oftentimes, that’s all we need,” Richey said.
That seems backwards to me. In years past I heard doctors complain about telemedicine, saying they could detect a lot of conditions in person that might be missed on the phone. I do not doubt these claims. If anything, the rapport between two individuals within close proximity would facilitate better communication. Yet, that is not always possible. In this case, the patients get the better view of the doctor for the patient’s satisfaction rather than facilitate the doctor’s view of the patient which could potentially improve care. Of course, while a dermatologist needs a closeup image of the patient, an oncologist may not.
The company behind the holograms is Proto Hologram, a Los Angeles-based startup. Their bread & butter is live performance events and corporate communications. Health care is a new entry for them and is currently not a priority.
The setup is costly, requiring investment in video technology. West Cancer Center profiled in the article spent $70,000 on the setup and pays an annual fee of about $5,000. Holograms may seem better than video conferencing but in what way? Patients likely seem more confident in their doctor, but are they getting better care? Probably not. A better method would potentially have more cameras on the patient. I have written about the telemedicine booth of the future (called CarePods) where patients enter a specially designed booth, where doctors can see more and read more vital signs than what a phone or camera can provide. Perhaps in the future when you go to MinuteClinic rather than speaking with a nurse practitioner, you will speak with a nurse who helps you into a booth and facilitates a physician or nurse practitioner examining you via numerous types of inputs. Or, when artificial intelligence reaches a level of complexity patients could choose the type of physician they would like to see, male, female, young, old, fat, slender, bald or a face like George Clooney. Then an AI hologram would treat them.
Read More at Wall Street Journal: The Hologram Doctor Will See You Now