Google Glass could become an integral part of medical care in the future and has already been credited with saving the life of one patient in the United States.
Wearing a beefed-up version of the futuristic internet-connected visual aid, doctors in Boston were able to immediately access the records of a man with a severe brain bleed last January during the devices clinical trials.
With the help of Google Glass, the physician at Beth Israel Deaconess was able to discover that because of his serious condition the patient had given an incomplete history and if they had administered much-needed drugs solely on that, he may have died.
The patient managed to tell doctors he was allergic to some blood pressure drugs – which they needed to slow the bleeding.
However, the man didn’t remember to tell them he was also taking blood-thining drugs – which when applied in combination could have been fatal.
Using the Google Glass to pull up his correct medical information, doctors were able to give him the correct dose of medication and thereby save him faster than accessing paper records or those of a computer screen somewhere else.
The life-saving story was first reported in the Boston Globe and is part of the Wearable Intelligence in Healthcare program in partnership with Google.
The glass devices contain specialized software designed for use solely inside hospitals and medical care centers.
The Google Glass has no access to social media or search engines and is only interconnected to the hospital Wi-Fi and physicians inside those four walls.
At Beth Israel Daconess, all ER doctors will now don the space-age glasses when they begin work – which will hopefully one day become as routine as putting on their scrubs.
Google Glass, which went on limited commercial sale last week in the United states, is considered the next possible frontier in mobile technology.
The frame contains a small eyeglass which has a small screen over the right eye which displays everything seen on a larger computer screen or smartphone.
In addition to the screen, Google Glass has a high-resolution camera which can be used to video patients as they arrive for records or to display real-time footage to specialists or doctors who are not currently present.
The device reacts to voice commands and the tech-giant hopes to retail Google Glass worldwide for up to $1,500.
‘And not only is it hands free, it’s always on, always in front of you and always giving you information,’ Dr. Steven Horng who is pioneering Google Glass in hospitals.
‘Rather than having to excuse myself, it means I can quickly access that information without having to interrupt the patient, lose eye contact, or even leave the room,’ said Horng to the Boston Globe.
Most importantly, despite being Google Glass, the Wearable Intelligence hardware have no access to Google’s database or records.
‘When we started this pilot, one of our caveats was we had to respect patient privacy and confidentiality,’ Horng told CNBC’s Squawk On the Street on Monday.
‘It needed to meet all the requirements that our other clinical applications do.’
Beth Israel and Wearable Intelligence plan to expand the hospital’s use of Google Glass in the near future. Additional uses could include using Glass for doctors to consult with each other remotely.
‘Surprisingly, the patients have been very very open to it,’ said Horng.
‘If anything, they have been very intrigued and like ‘what’s on your head?’
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