M2MAPPS: Ned: The VGo telepresence robot is an amazing high-tech / high-touch product. When and why was the decision made to create it?

NED SEMONITE: VGo was founded in 2007. The early years were spent raising money and starting the design. The people behind the company came out of the videoconferencing and robotics industries. I came out of the video communications space. The idea for creating a telepresence robot came from customers who were telling us that videoconferencing is great but they really needed the capability in other parts of the building. When we started to think about this request we also realized that there was another constraint: you need the physical presence of two people, one at each end. With VGo you only need one person, he or she initiates the call and their presence is replicated at the other end. You should see it as a brand-new communications medium and it’s exactly what is needed to address key health and education issues.

M2MAPPS: Can you summarize the key functionality?

NED SEMONITE: VGo provides a natural experience for somebody who is remote and wants to move around in a different facility. Both sides can see and hear each other. The robot has a camera, speakers and a display and the remote person uses their computer or a tablet.

If this person was a doctor in a remote location, he or she could see and hear the patient on their mobile device. The patient would communicate with the doctor via VGo, which could be alongside the bed. When that consultation was over the doctor could “drive” the robot to the next patient. Moving can be fast or slow and VGo can also pivot in place. This is done using a mouse or the touch pad of a notebook or a finger on a tablet. The driver simply drags the pointer to the place where they want the robot to go. There are different driving methods, sensors to assist driving and avoid obstacles plus spoken visitor arrival announcements.

M2MAPPS: Have you experienced any resistance to this concept? It might appear to be an alien way to seeing a doctor to some people, particularly elderly people.

NED SEMONITE: That’s a valid concern and one might expect something along the lines of “what’s this strange thing doing in my house”, but in practice VGo’s are not only accepted, after a few minutes the experience they provide is welcomed.

That might sound a bit OTT, but think about the benefit of “being” with somebody they would not normally see right there in their home, for example, distant family members. And of course being able to see one’s doctor and healthcare visitor more frequently is an important healthcare benefit. I’ve been focusing on healthcare but VGo is also a great way of enabling students who are injured or ill to attend school and this is particularly true for young people who might have immune deficiencies and other physical challenges that might make attendance impossible. In this case there is no resistance. Now, they can participate in classroom discussions and share in the social aspects of locker-side chats, lunch period and moving from class to class. VGo becomes a friend.

M2MAPPS: The benefits for mHealth and education are tangible. Can you estimate the ROI times?

NED SEMONITE: I can and the average time might surprise you. We worked really hard to make VGo affordable and easy to operate. The price is around six thousand dollars and while ROI times depend on the way they are used, a typical figure is six months. You don’t have to enable many physical visits by healthcare professionals in order to recoup the investment. We’re finding that many hospitals are deploying VGo’s in the homes of people who have undergone surgery or treatment. This is done in order to minimize the need to re-admit patients, which is particularly expensive in the States because the insurance companies are penalizing hospitals whose re-admission percentages are high. ROI times in education are equally low. Consider the cost of providing home tutors to students who cannot attend school. And depriving a child of the classroom experience and being able to make friends with his or her peer group is something whose value cannot be quantified.

Company: VGO Communications