Google Glass transforms surgery
Wednesday, March 5 2014 | 00 h 00 min | News
A French surgeon used the Google Glass to allow a physician located 10,000 km away to observe an operation as if he were on site.
Dr. Philippe Collin, an orthopedic surgeon at the Saint-Grégoire Private Hospital Centre, near Rennes, was operating on an 80-year-old patient who had ruptured his shoulder tendons. The patient was receiving a shoulder replacement that would help him recover his motor functions.
Since the prosthesis design used by Dr. Collin has just been approved in Japan, professor Goto at the Nagoya Hospital Centre wanted to observe the operation. Wearing the Google Glass during the operation, Dr. Collin was able not only to transmit images of the surgery, but also to interact with his Japanese colleague. An application created by Advanced Mobile Applications allowed him to receive images, to see his colleague and to talk to him. A simple voice command could make professor Goto appear.
“Mentoring is part of the philosophy of surgery and Google Glass is the perfect tool,” said Dr. Collin. He also imagines other applications in the future, such as displaying surgical procedures during an operation, looking up patient data or using augmented reality to optimize joint replacement procedures.
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