The Journal of mHealth Vol 1 Issue 2 (Apr 2014) | Page 35

Google Glass: Transformative Technology for Healthcare?
how the Google Glass system can be
directly linked to their proprietary SAP
HANA data services.
At Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center in Boston they have been testing Google Glass with four of their
emergency room doctors over a three
month period. Using Glass, the doctors
have been able to access the medical
centre’s internal web-based emergency
room dashboard while ensuring that all
patient data stayed securely within the
centre’s firewall. This means that the
clinicians were able to speak with and
examine patients at the same time as
viewing data from the dashboard.
Dr. John Halamka the Centre’s Chief
Information Officer suggests that the
wearable device has proven helpful for
accessing summarised real-time information.
“We believe the ability to access and
confirm clinical information at the
bedside is one of the strongest features
of Google Glass” writes Halamka in a
recent blog post. “I believe wearable
computing will replace tablet-based
computing for many clinicians who
need their hands free and instant access
to information.”
An area that is receiving strong support
for the use of Google Glass technology
is for recording and live streaming surgical procedures for use as a real-time
teaching tool. The ability to record live
surgeries from the unique perspective
of the performing surgeon gives students and trainee doctors the opportunity to view surgeries close-up, and gain
an informative visual demonstration of
the surgical elements.
Cardiothoracic surgeon Pierre Theodore, MD and Associate Professor at
UCSF School of Medicine, has gone
one step further by using Google Glass
to pre-load CT and X-ray images relevant to the procedure. He can then
have the system display the necessary
image during surgery, and use this to

directly compare the medical scan with
the surgical site.
“Often one will remove a tumour that
may be deeply hidden inside an organ
– the liver, for example,” reveals Theodore. “To be able to have those X-rays
directly in your field without having to
leave the operating room or to log-on
to another system elsewhere, or to turn
yourself away from the patient in order
to divert your attention, is very helpful
in terms of maintaining your attention
where it should be, which is on the
patient 100 percent of the time.”
The key benefit with wearable technology like the Google Glass, according
to Theodore, is to make information
more accessible to physicians to help
them constantly make critical decisions.
“Poor decision-making is a chief source
of poor outcomes among patients”
he said. “So I think that’s one way the
Google Glass can truly help, by providing data when we need the data.”

is the ability to breakdown geographical barriers. By providing wearable augmented-reality systems to surgeons in
remote areas of the world, it becomes
possible to teach them modern surgical
techniques through live feedback and
direction during surgery.
It is becoming obvious that Google
Glass and similar systems from companies like Vuzix, are going to play an
important role in healthcare provision
of the future. How far these systems
will penetrate into the care environment will depend upon the acceptance
among healthcare professionals and
patients. That said, the data produced
from trials already shows that delivering data in this way is considered less
intrusive than the technologies already
used, suggesting that wearable head up
displays could become widely adopted
in the near-term future. 

For instance, physicians can easily
call-up electronic medical records, a
systematic collection of electronic
health information about patients that
allows clinicians to accurately assess
the patient’s medical condition at all
times without the need to track down
volumes of actual medical record files.
The other benefit of this type of device

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