I’ll admit, I’m kind of a fan girl for all things Google (if you didn’t notice with my recent excitement about Google Fiber, or how I tend to favor Android apps.) So, of course, I think that Google Glasses sound really exciting. And when I first heard about them, I wondered if they had a place in healthcare.
It looks like others have thought that same thing.
To me, it would make sense for Google Glasses to be used in the healthcare world. It could be the next step for fitness devices. Doctors could potentially use it, as could medical students. The article from above listed the following ideas that seemed most plausible (these descriptions are directly from the article):
- Video sharing and storage: Physicians could record medical visits and store them for future reference or share the footage with other doctors.
- A diagnostic reference: If Glass is integrated with an electronic medical record (EMR), it could provide a real-time feed of the patient’s vital signs.
- A textbook alternative: Rather than referring to a medical textbook, physicians can perform a search on the fly with their Google Glass.
- Emergency room/war zone care: As storied venture capitalist Marc Andreessen proposed in a recent interview, consider ”dealing with wounded patients and right there in their field of vision, if they’re trying to do any kind of procedure, they’ll have step-by-step instructions walking them through it.” In a trauma situation, doctors need to keep their hands free.
- Helping medical students learn: As suggested by one blogger, a surgeon might live stream a live — and potentially rare — surgery to residents and students.
- Preventing medical errors: With an electronic medical record integration, a nurse can scan the medication to confirm whether it’s the correct drug dose and right patient.
It seems as if this is only the beginning. Of course, Google Glasses aren’t going to come cheap, but I feel it could really revolutionize healthcare.
What possibilities do you see between Google Glasses and Healthcare?
howdy
Google Glass will be very useful for fast interactions with the computer – use cases where the clinician needs to look up a single piece of information or relay a small amount of information to others. Unfortunately, the screen isn’t large enough to do much more than that.
I have a Google Glass as part of the #ifihadglass beta. My company, Pristine, develops applications for google Glass and other eyeware computers to use at the point of care
[…] latest innovation from Google may have a big effect on the future of healthcare. Google Glasses, though not created specifically for the healthcare community, could prove to transform healthcare […]