COLUMBUS, Ohio - To get to where he needs to go, he is strapped in with bungee cords and wheeled to his next location.
But that is riding in style for Lt. Dan VGo, a telepresence robot at Nationwide Children's Hospital. He got his name from the famous Forrest Gump character because he "has no legs" and scoots around on wheels.
Lt. Dan joined the hospital staff, complete with is own ID badge, early last year. The initial goal was to connect children who are patients at the hospital with their loved ones serving overseas.
"Sure, you can use FaceTime and things like WhatsApp, but that’s not secure, so if you want sort of end-to-end encryption with a physician, and you want to get the information firsthand, Lt. Dan Vgo is the way to go," said Maurice Clarke, clinical manager of interventional radiology at NCH.
Clarke also co-chairs the Military Veterans Employee Resource Group, which came up with the idea for Lt. Dan as a way to perform its outreach initiative for both veterans and patients.
"Phone conversation is great; video conversation is better," Clarke said. "In person, nothing beats that, but at least we can try to bridge that gap, you know. A for effort, as we would say."
To comply with HIPAA rules, the system works via a secure link using the VGo software. From there, with the right connectivity, the patients can connect with their families, friends and loved ones anywhere in the world. But sometimes the most important connections can be made within just a few miles from the hospital.
"Our most recent patient, he goes to school locally, and he’s been in the hospital for a few weeks and wanted to see his friends, and we set up something with the school where the classroom had a video conference with Lt. Dan VGo, it’s fantastic," Clarke said.
So far, Lt. Dan has only been used a handful of times, but the ERG is hoping to get him out into the community and raise awareness about the fact that he is an available resource at the hospital.