Google Glass taken into the operating room

This can be likely be filed under the ‘it had to happen sooner or later’ category, however it looks like one surgeon has recently taken Google Glass into the operating room. This case, which is believed to be the first seems to have been done more in a attempt to show it is possible. Needless to say, the surgeon did make it clear that it is possible to use Google Glass during live surgery.

First things first though, there are some issues the surgeon addressed going in to the procedure. The most important aspect seems to have been ensuring the privacy of the patient. In this particular case the procedure involved placing a feeding tube which was done endoscopically.

The technical term of the procedure is called PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy) and is described as being a “simple and commonly performed” procedure. That was also another point made clear going in — to make sure the patient had the surgeons full attention despite the involvement of Glass. Hence the reason for starting with what is considered a simple procedure.

The setup was simple and involved Google Glass along with a newly created Google account, an active Hangout and an iPad. The Hangout stayed active during the procedure and things started with the surgeon explaining the procedure. From here he was able to perform the procedure while documenting everything that he saw. And in addition, everything he saw was being projected onto a nearby iPad for viewing.

The overall setup was said to have intentionally been kept simple. Again, this was more proof of concept than anything. With that in mind, it does look like this particular surgeon wants to take things a bit further and also went on to talk about how there should be a way to directly stream the endoscopic view thru Google Glass. So how about it, are you ready for your surgeon to become a “Glass Explorer Surgeon.”

SOURCE: @ZG JR Blog