Santa Barbara, CA, March 17, 2003 - InTouch Health, Inc., founded by surgical robots industry pioneer, Dr. Yulun Wang, today announced it has secured $2.4 million in Series A equity financing. Significant investors for the round include Dr. Virgil Elings, founder and past chairman and president for Digital Instruments, Inc, and Twenty One East Victoria Investments, a Santa Barbara based venture investment entity established by Michael Towbes in 1999. Mr. Robert L. Skinner, Managing Partner of Twenty One East Victoria Investments, will join InTouch Health's board of directors. Terms of the financing deal were not disclosed.

Dr. Wang, chairman and CEO for InTouch Health, is an accomplished entrepreneur and world renowned authority on robotics and health care. In 1998, Dr. Wang was named South Coast Business & Technology Entrepreneur of the Year for his successes with Computer Motion, Inc., (Nasdaq: RBOT) which he founded in 1989. Dr. Wang is the principal architect of Computer Motion's product line which has performed more than 300,000 surgeries and includes the first-ever FDA approved robot. In 1999, a Computer Motion robot was used to enable the world's first closed-chest beating heart bypass surgery. In 2001, doctors in New York used another Computer Motion robot to complete the world's first transatlantic operation on a patient located 4,000 miles away in France. Today, there are more than 1,000 hospitals in the U.S. (about 25%) that use surgical robots in their daily operations.

With more than 15 years of world class experience in developing robots for mission critical applications, Dr. Wang is now leading InTouch Health's efforts to develop robots to address the health care crisis of staff shortages, rising costs, and an ever increasing demand for services by our aging population. InTouch Health is developing "remote presence" capabilities for health care professionals using robotic and telecommunications technology.

Dr. Wang said, "I am very excited about the future of InTouch Health and to be leading its efforts to bring innovative solutions to solve one of our society's biggest challenges. Namely, how to deliver better quality care and lower costs despite a chronic shortage of health care professionals. I'm confident that we can make a significant impact on this enormous and rapidly growing worldwide problem."

Dr. Wang further added, "I am pleased to announce the addition of Mr. Skinner to the board of directors of InTouch Health. Mr. Skinner brings a wealth of experience in financing, business deal structuring and legal matters. As the company works diligently to grow its business, we look forward to his guidance and contribution."

Robert L. Skinner said, "The InTouch Health solution isn't about replacing humans with robots - it's about using robotics to enhance and extend human performance. In an industry where human capital is by far the most significant (and costly) asset, the use of robotics is a logical step in extending the reach of health care professionals to leverage their expertise across multiple care facilities. The move to deploy technology based solutions in the health care industry in order to improve the quality of care, reduce costs and address the needs of both patients and heath care professionals alike is inevitable, particularly in extended care and elder care facilities where the growth of those in need of care is already outpacing the growth in skilled medical professionals necessary to provide that care; and that trend is only getting worse."

Mr. Skinner further added, "The InTouch Health management team has tremendous credibility within the health care and venture capital communities. With a proven track record, there's no team better suited to deliver on the promise of providing viable robotic solutions to aid in elder care."

About InTouch Health
There is a demographic crisis in health care. Over the next 10 years the number of elderly age 85 and over will grow 38%. The number of seniors requiring health care support will double. Already today there are over 400,000 unfilled nursing positions causing health care providers across the country to close wings or risk negative outcomes - this number will increase to more than 1,000,000 by the end of this decade.

Over the coming years, the declining ratio of working age adults to elderly will further exacerbate the shortage. In 1950 there were 8 adults available to support each elder 65+, today the ratio is 5:1 and by 2020 the ratio will drop to 3 working age adults per elder person. Technology solutions which dramatically increase the effectiveness of health care professionals are required.

InTouch Health is addressing this challenge by pioneering the use of Remote Presence in health care. Through its flagship product, the Companion™, a health care expert can "be in two places at once." An expert can move, see, hear and talk in another location as though s/he were there. The InTouch Health solution leverages the time and expertise of health care professionals across many care facilities improving the efficiency and effectiveness of care delivery.

Based in Santa Barbara, CA, InTouch Health is a privately held company.

About Dr. Virgil Elings
In 1987, Dr. Elings founded Digital Instruments, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Veeco Corporation (Nasdaq: VECO) and served as the company's president and chairman of the board until his retirement in 1999. Digital Instruments remains the global leader in the design and manufacture of scanning probe microscopes, including scanning tunneling and atomic force microscopes. Dr. Elings earned his Ph.D. in Physics from MIT and currently holds 42 patents.

About Twenty One East Victoria Investments
Twenty One East Victoria Investments was formed by Michael Towbes and Robert Skinner to take advantage of the high quality investment opportunities created by the Central Coast's growing technology industry, fueled largely by the highly regarded engineering and applied physics programs at the University of California, Santa Barbara.