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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Even in a modern emergency room filled with flat screens, this one stood out, literally. Mounted roughly eye-level on a mobile pole, it boasted two unequal black &#8220;eyes&#8221; at the top as it asked questions, the untouched screen pivoting right and left, up and down.</p><p>&#8220;Some robots I can maneuver remotely around the floor,&#8221; Jefferson University Hospital neurologist Dr. Omar Shah said from the screen on the pole, his disembodied torso being transmitted to Wilkes-Barre General Hospital in real time from the Philadelphia facility. &#8220;This one doesn&#8217;t do that, but I can still point the camera.&#8221;</p><p>He could also converse with emergency room doctor Dr. David Grasso about the condition of mock-patient Jill Cook, Wilkes-Barre General Hospital&#8217;s interim ER director, who feigned weakness on her left side to show off the new system connecting the hospital with the Jefferson Neuroscience Network, allowing ER doctors at the local facility to consult with a staff neurologist 24 hours a day.</p><p>The system allows a Jefferson neurologist to review medical images such as MRIs of a patient sent remotely, to interview the patient, watch the patient&#8217;s response to questions or requests to lift a leg or an arm, and even to zoom in to study the reactions of the eyes, a frequent window into mental status.</p><p>Shah also demonstrated the ability to flash pictures onto the screen and ask questions to determine a patient&#8217;s visual ability and mental state. A drawing of a woman washing dishes in an overflowing sink on the right while a boy teeters on a falling stool on the left may reveal a field cut in vision if only one of those images registers with a patient.</p><p>An inability to name an image of a glove or a chair on the screen can point to other deficits caused by the stoppage of blood to a part of the brain during a stroke.</p><p>Shah said Wilkes-Barre General and its parent company, Commonwealth Health, were joining a network of some 37 hospitals in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. The system is also being added to four other Commonwealth hospitals in the area: Berwick, Tyler Memorial, Regional Hospital of Scranton and Moses Taylor.</p><p>The network can shave precious minutes off a patient&#8217;s wait for diagnosis and treatment, he added, because even though a hospital like Wilkes-Barre General may have a neurologist on call, it can take time for one to get to the ER at odd hours. Jefferson has dozens, scheduled to make sure someone is always available for the tele-consult if needed, he added.</p><p>&#8220;With a stroke, time is brain. You can lose 1.9 million brain cells for every minute,&#8221; Shah said. With the new system, &#8220;I can see them two to three minutes after a patient comes in.&#8221;</p><p>Jefferson launched the network in 2010 and says it has done more than 10,000 acute stroke consultations since. Shah said it can help assure a patient in a hospital in a small town gets the same care as a person who comes to Jefferson in Philadelphia.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wilkes-Barre General&#8217;s Interim Emergency Room Director Jill Cook and emergency room Dr. David Grasso watch and listen to Dr. Omar Shah, a neurologist at Jefferson University Hospital, via a new robotic stroke tele-consulting system demonstrated Tuesday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_TTL011619stroke2-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wilkes-Barre General&#8217;s Interim Emergency Room Director Jill Cook and emergency room Dr. David Grasso watch and listen to Dr. Omar Shah, a neurologist at Jefferson University Hospital, via a new robotic stroke tele-consulting system demonstrated Tuesday. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_TTL011619stroke1-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Dr. David Grasso watches as Jill Cook raises her leg during a demonstration of the new &#8216;Jefferson Expert tele-consulting&#8217; robot that links the Wilkes-Barre General Emergency Room to a neurologist at Jefferson University Hospital when treating stroke patients. Participating from Jefferson is neurologist Dr. Omar Shah. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_TTL011619stroke1-2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Dr. David Grasso watches as Jill Cook raises her leg during a demonstration of the new &#8216;Jefferson Expert tele-consulting&#8217; robot that links the Wilkes-Barre General Emergency Room to a neurologist at Jefferson University Hospital when treating stroke patients. Participating from Jefferson is neurologist Dr. Omar Shah. </caption1><photoCredit1>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Changing stroke care through tele-medicine</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

The robot in the room: Changing stroke care through tele-medicine