The Defense Department has been doing R&D work on autonomous vehicles-remotely controlled tanks, pilotless “Predator” aircraft and the like.  Largest in this genre is the autonomous aircraft carrier, which isn’t crewless, but does have a much smaller complement.  A Nimitz-class carrier ordinary has a crew of 5,500, of which 2,600 handle the 85 aircraft on board.  At sea, this is roughly the equivalent to a small town always running 24/7.  By automating everything from navigation and engine operations, to food and laundry service; using robots to inspect the hull and “swab the decks” (i.e. every flat surface); and employ pilotless fighter-bombers like Boeing’s X-45 combat plane, the autonomous carrier might be fully “manned” for Nimitz-class service with only 600 sailors.  The idea is even more mind-boggling for a carrier-group.

A thousand-bed hospital has features approximating an aircraft carrier: high degree of organization, extensive staffing, 24/7 service, technology dependence.  Both are high risk domains.  So, is an autonomous hospital conceivable?  And if so, how so?  Telemedicine, robotics, human factors process improvement, laboratory automation, medical automation, point-of-care devices, nanotechnology, and molecular diagnostics-subjects Tagline tracks-certainly hold some of the answers.  But the real value of MedicalAutomaton.org is in the critical mass of intelligence Tagline’s readers possess.  Please consider Musings, then, as an open forum for succinct statements (strict 250 word limit) about how our collective wisdom might be brought to resolve healthcare’s greatest economic challenge-the enormous costs of keeping a hospital afloat.