A lot is being talked about Google Glass in the healthcare industry. Many surgeons are already using Google Glass while performing operations and surgical procedures. Sometimes, the surgeons may want to broadcast the procedure to the resident physicians, and Google Glass can be used as a teaching tool in the operating room. In this way, medical residents and colleagues at another medical center can get constructive feedback from the surgeons and observe and learn how surgeries are performed. Google Glass not only enables health professionals to take photos and record videos, but also make the information accessible during the operations as and when needed.
Virtual Dictation
Physicians spend several hours almost daily for the electronic health records (EHR) and patient documentation. With the use of Google Glass, the doctors can enter and access the patients’ records easily in real-time without being glued to a computer or a laptop. This helps health care providers save a lot of time and efforts.
Improved Visibility
In the limited space of surgical procedure, Google Glass allows the physician improve real-time visibility from multiple angles. Use of this advanced device helps the surgeons improve the visibility and record the videos for future use. Surgeons can broadcast their surgical procedures with much better visibility to the medical students.
Surgical Training
Glass provides a walk through experience to the students to better understand surgical procedures. Most of the surgeons and hospitals make use of this device to record surgeries for educational purposes.
Telemedicine
With Glass, doctors at rural locations can consult with the specialists located anywhere across the globe in real-time. The healthcare providers can communicate with the doctors remotely and monitor the patients’ records in real-time. The hospital staff members can get a complete picture of incoming patients so that the resources can be managed accordingly.
Faster access to information
Google Glass helps the doctors get hands-free access to patients’ health records along with maintaining eye contact with the patients. This allows the physicians to look up important information without taking their attention away from the patient. Instead of using electronically recorded data on a laptop or a tablet, the doctors can get involved in the conversation with the patient while accessing the patient records through Glass. Faster access to the data helps the doctor spend more valuable time with the patient.
Improving the Patient Experience
Google Glass helps the patients get world-class care from the comfort of their homes. Specialists can be contacted remotely from any part of the world to offer the best patient care possible. Some hospitals have already introduced Google Glass to offer better coordinated care and better results for healthcare, all the while reducing the number of visits and the costs.
Patient Care Instructions
As every patient is unique, so are the instructions. Glass helps the clinicians improve the medical records and patient care instructions to prevent any chance of the patient forgetting the instructions. Consequently, this will help the patients recall the treatments and instructions.
Are there any challenges of Google glass for healthcare industry?
Should Google Glass be used in surgical procedures? – This is a common question often asked by the surgeons and physicians. First, we need to think about privacy. The device makes it easier to take a picture or record a video of someone without permission, and thus it can be risky to use Google Glass as it may cause privacy violations.
Even after being responsibly used by the doctors and medical professionals, the remote access software can allow the hackers to get access to the information out of the users’ knowledge.
Looking Ahead
Glass along with other wearables offers clear advantage over smartphones and tablets. Google Glass is surely worth adding to clinics and hospitals for future healthcare services. Hospitals that want to use with Glass should take patient consent before the procedures and help patients enjoy better health.
