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Google Glass isn’t just for explorers anymore. An emergency room in Boston uses Glass to treat patients and get instant access to their medical records.
“Google Glass enabled me to view this patient’s allergy information and current medication regimen without having to excuse myself to log in to a computer, or even lose eye contact,” said Dr. Steve Horng of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
The benefit of having all of the patient’s vital information displayed within Google Glass greatly reduced the time it would take to treat a patient. In Horng’s case, he was treating a patient suffering from massive brain bleeding. Each second that went by would’ve been critical or fatal.
Wearable Intelligence is the company behind using Google Glass in the ER. It reformats Google Glass software so it can be locked in for specific purposes. This means that the specialized headgear won’t be able to use social media or be taken off hospital Wi-Fi. The speech recognition of this Glass is also replaced with a medical dictionary.
Wearable Intelligence is one of several companies enrolled in Google’s Glass at Work program, which is gearing Glass for additional specialty fields such as athletics, broadcasting, law enforcement and oil field surveillance to name a few.
FUTURE IMPLICATIONS
Making specialized “Glass” correspond to career fields will greatly streamline efficiency and productivity among workers. Gone will be the days of rifling through archives and file cabinets to find information you’re looking for. In the medical field, we could even see faster rates of treatment in emergency rooms. In the field of sports and broadcasting, referees could share their Glass video perspectives in order to justify penalties or foul calls. When Glass is adopted into the mainstream, our intake of information will be greatly accelerated.
About the author
Cory Healy is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn. When he's not writing about tech or music, he can either be found delivering food on bike throughout lower Manhattan, or playing computer games at home.
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