Using Google Glass in the emergency room

Researchers are studying whether equipping emergency department physicians with wearable computers like Google Glass could improve the quality and efficiency of patient care. Over a period of six months, the researcher surveyed 31 patients with skin conditions in the emergency department of Rhode Island Hospital in Providence. In these cases, rather than having the emergency room physicians page the on-call dermatologist, they instead connected with the specialist via Google Glass. This allowed both to of them to ask the patient questions in real time and possibly eliminated the need for the patient to schedule a second visit just to see the dermatologist.

 

The study found that 93.5% of the patients liked the experience and 96.8% were confident in the equipment’s accuracy and that their privacy was protected. The researchers will next study using Google Glass with other patients who come to the emergency room, such as those with signs of stroke or poisoning.