Google Glass, functioning as a sort of
hands-free device, can help optimize medical data management…and tear
down the walls of the operating theatre.
Only a few months after its beta version
release, Google Glass has already penetrated the medical world. Even
though it has generated heated debates and one could dub it as a
futuristic gadget, its use could generate innovative applications for
doctors. According to a recent survey by California-based Health IT
company
Augmedix it
seems that patients are ready as wel as 98%of the people polled had no
objection to their doctor using Google Glass. Now in fact a number of
surgeons have actually been using this wearable device accessory during
delicate operations. It has been shown in practice that these smart
glasses not only facilitate remote collaboration between medical staff
during difficult operations but enable them to stream this practical
demonstration to students, connecting classrooms directly with the
operating theatre.
Opening up the operating theatre
Operations have recently taken place in the United States and Spainwhere the surgeon used Google Glass. Recently the
Ohio State University Medical Center conducted
an open surgical operation, linking the operating theatre to a group of
medical students and medical staff through the smart glasses worn by
the chief surgeon. The glasses provide a direct surgeon’s-eye view of
what he is doing, which means that he can call on the assistance of a
consultant or colleague specializing in that specific field who is
remotely following the operation on a continuous basis and receive much
more detailed advice. In addition, the whole operation can be filmed and
streamed live over the Internet to medical students around the world.
During an operation filmed in
Spain in
June, students from Stanford University in the United States were able
to monitor the operation and also interact with the surgeon, Dr Pedro
Guillén, in order to gain a better understanding of the techniques he
was using. Dr Guillén enthused that Google Glass could potentially serve
as a “common university for medical schools around the world.”
AR surgery and sophisticated record-keeping?
The potential uses of Google Glass go beyond facilitating real-time
communication between surgeons, consultants and students. Soon health
practitioners will be able to retrieve patients’ medical files and call
up such diagnostic data as X-rays, heart rate, MRI scans, etc. Such
efficient data management would avoid interruptions during operations
and increase the amount of information a surgeon would have at his/her
disposal while operating. Developers have already come up with the
MedRef for Glass app,
which allows doctors and healthcare staff to create, update and consult
medical records in a hands-free manner, based on facial recognition. In
an era when masses of vital patient data are constantly being garnered,
but there is as yet no sophisticated sharing and archiving system in
existence, Google Glass has the potential to process the constant
information flows. In addition to taking the operating theatre to a new
dimension, these connected specs could well serve to streamline all
those administrative tasks which today on average take up over 25% of a
hospital doctor’s time.
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