When I was a presenter on the BBC's flagship science show, Tomorrow's World, in the 1990s, medical robots were a favourite story.
We'd often report that, one day, we'd all be looked after by whizzy robot doctors and nurses, and watched over by sensors dotted about the home that could tell if we were getting ill.
And if we did need to speak to a real medic, one could appear, magically, on a TV screen in our own living room. Just imagine!
It was all bewitching, given the mundane reality, back then, of sitting in your GP waiting room on a Wednesday morning, having waited weeks for that ten-minute slot.