While the consumer version of Google Glass won’t see the light of day anytime soon, the top medical professionals are definitely making use of Google’s once highly touted wearable. As Dr. Peter Chai, an emergency physician, toxicologist, and assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School recently explained to CNBC, “consumers weren’t ready for Google Glass, but the medical community has given it a second life.” More specifically, Chai explained that numerous medical professionals are using Glass in order to inform specialists of complications with patients in a timely manner.
He gave an example of a patient who overdosed or got poisoned. In that scenario, Chai singled out Glass as the most efficient tool of contacting a medical specialist and giving him or her a live video feed of the situation while simultaneously transmitting all of the necessary and relevant data. As he put it, it means that Google’s wearable can be directly responsible for more accurate patient diagnosis. Those aren’t just subjective claims by Chai, however. The emergency physician has actually recently conducted an extensive research on the matter in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health and its results are extremely encouraging. Namely, while supervisory consultants reported confidence in 59% of cases of diagnosing specific toxins without actually seeing patients, they were confident in 94% of their diagnoses conducted with Google Glass.
Regardless of that, Chai concedes that Glass is not without its problems and believes that wireless connectivity is one that requires immediate addressing. Interestingly enough, he apparently doesn’t have a problem with the battery life of the device, which is something most consumers who got a chance to use it were complaining about. Furthermore, the said doctor stated that Glass is potentially a significantly cheaper alternative to traditional telemedicine carts, even when its $1,500 price tag is additionally raised by expensive medical software. Apart from seeming more affordable, Chai also added that many doctors prefer Glass over traditionally used hospital technology due to its simplicity and the fact that it can accomplish the same goals without “a lot of complex wiring.”
While Google’s wearable failed in its first attempt to enter the consumer electronics market, the Mountain View-based tech giant has already started a Glass revival project dubbed “Aura” and is hoping to have better luck this time.