Northern Idaho robot connects doctors and patients

A robot is helping doctors and nurses at Clearwater Valley Hospital in Idaho expand their access to big-city medicine. The 5-foot-2-inch robot connects primary care doctors with psychiatrists and other specialists at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise. It also allows nurses, while they treat patients or assist in the operating room, to be critiqued and guided by experts at the larger hospital. Casey Meza, chief executive officer of Clearwater, said the robot is opening a new realm of medical services that wouldn't be available otherwise.