ER docs have been employing a custom medical app for the augmented reality glasses.
A technology forward hospital in Boston, Beth Israel, has now developed a custom Google glass information retrieval system that gives its Emergency Department doctors the ability to scan QR codes posted on the wall of each of the rooms in order to be able to call up the information about the patients who are within those spaces.
It remains a prototype for a new information system but it is currently being tested by the docs.
The augmented reality glasses used to scan the QR codes feature all of the different elements that make this type of use possible. It includes a video camera, video screen, microphone, speaker, motion sensor, and even a touch pad. This helps clinicians to remain informed about a patient much more quickly and effectively than having to use the traditional paper or hand-held methods.
The QR codes allow the Google Glass wearable technology to recognize the room and the patient in it.
When a doctor who is wearing the AR glasses enters an emergency department room, he or she simply needs to look at the QRcode that is placed on the wall. The device automatically recognizes the quick response code for what it is, and scans it. It is then provided with the information associated with the patient in that room by the Emergency Room Dashboard.
That information is presented in the doctor’s field of vision. It allows him or her to speak with the patient, examine the patient, and even perform various types of procedure while consulting data and without having to tie up his or her hands with a paper or digital form of the information.
The hospital is starting to become quite familiar with the use of Google Glass, particularly as the new application has already been used by some of its doctors over the last three months for testing purposes. The Emergency Department is now planning to offer it to all interested doctors throughout the month of March. Beth Israel Hospital has gone to great lengths in the integration of the Emergency Department dashboard with QR codes and the wearable devices, being careful to use “the same privacy safeguards as our existing web interface.”
