Google Glass now a surgical tool at Stanford

Google Glass now a surgical tool at Stanford

Surgeons-in-training at Stanford University Medical School will soon get a new tool to use during their education – Google Glass.

The search giant has teamed-up with live-streaming firm CrowdOptic to transmit a students’ eye-view from the operating room to instructors in real time via the Glass. The idea is that medical residents will get better feedback and instruction from the surgeons who are teaching them.

The idea is that medical residents will get better feedback and instruction from the surgeons who are teaching them.“The reaction [from doctors] has been that this changes the game,” said CrowdOptic co-founder and CEO Jon Fisher, who also noted that the technology offers a “paradigm shift” in surgical training.

When it comes to privacy, Fisher said that CrowdOptic’s solution is safe, because they’ve found a way to “lock down” the data from the live stream. What’s more, the company has its own licensed spectrum and doesn’t have to depend on a Wi-Fi partner. Finally, the data produced by the live stream is owned by Stanford, and CrowdOptic does not have access to it.

CrowdOptic is one of five partners in the “Glass at Work” program that Google announced in June; other partners include APX Labs, GuidiGo, AugMedix and Wearable Intelligence. The company has been working on streaming use-cases for Google Glass and has built technology that can handle multiple simultaneous streaming feeds.

It’s worth adding that this isn’t the first time the Glass has been used in the operating room. More than a year ago, a doctor at Ohio State University live-streamed surgery on a patient’s knee. However, this is the first time that Glass has been worn by the medical student, not the instructing surgeon.

[Via: CNet]