The Remote Presence Virtual + Independent Telemedicine Assistant - short RP-VITA - has been unleashed at the recent Santa Barbara Clinical Innovations Forum, and it has the power to boost the way people engage in- and experience medicare.

The RP-Vita, designed to focus on urgent care and the ICU, is a fully connected, digital “doc”, connected to a cloud based medical system with direct links to specialized healthcare personnel.

iRobot has chosen to run its healthcare web-platform via Apple, enabling further merging with existing and future Apple products/applications.

The questions at hand, is, how the cooperation between iRobot products - like the RP VITA - and powerhouse Apple could fuel further development of new and innovative healthcare solutions within the present and future healthcare programs.

Creating a new product-branch

First of all, healthcare products are very specialized, expensive pieces of equipment. Right now the RP-VITA is a good example of how technology could shape the way medicare is handled in professional institutions like hospitals or private clinics.

If Apple's innovation team were to cooperate with iRobots medicare developments, they would definitely come up with products designated for private usage, helping people with their day-to-day healthcare issues and aligning the the broad “Obamacare” concept of universally available health care.

A niche is born

Secondly, the co-op would change the way we perceive medical products and health-related online applications.

Imagine professionally moderated health categories in the iTunes store, product integration like iPhone cardiac meter, etc.

If there is a company that has the power to create a need where there hasn't been one yet, it is Apple. Watch them make good use of their marketing machine to let people know : Apple is Healthcare.

Making it available

The third point is logistics. Apple employs one of the most sophisticated supply chains in the world, with numerous exclusivity deals and different stages of vertical integration.

It would take little effort to supply a broad range of citizens with private healthcare products, just by using the same logistic networks they use for common products like macs, ipods etc.

Of course there are numerous ways you can play out this scenario, one thing is certain: A cooperation between iRobot and Apple has the power to revolutionize the way people handle and engage in healthcare-related products and issues.

If you have any further questions or suggestions, feel free to comment and join the conversation.