The moment you step in to a medical facility for treatment,
a nurse wearing Google Glass will have all your information right in front of
her eyes, from your personal medical history to current health issues, name of
the doctor you are consulting, treatment & medication, real-time stats of
blood pressure, heart beat, blood sugar and more such related information.
Easy access to patient information is considered as the biggest benefit
a nurse could have from Google Glass. A nurse can quickly locate and see health
history of a patient without having to take her hands off a patient or excuse
herself from a procedure.
Think about if all the nurses are wearing Google Glass and is
integrated with the hospital's database system, communication and interaction
among them will be done in the blink of an eye. If the nurse's hands are gloved
and dirty, it’s not a good idea to pick up and answer the phone. However,with
the help of Google Glass, nurses could easily interact and complete the
conversation without leaving the work they are doing. Google Glass can also
show text messages and updates via the screen.
Since the introduction, Google Glass works best for
information purposes. With continuous development, other medical procedures
could be integrated so long as there was a perfected way to make sure that
patient information goes to the right place on the hands of right person.
On the other hand, when new technology is introduced into
patient care, there is always a concern of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability
and Accountability Act) because Google Glass are devices for personal use
primarily. However, such concern could be resolved if these are owned by the
healthcare organization and are encrypted on the hospital network.
As technology leaps ahead in future, it will become increasingly
available to the mass and technologies like Google Glass won’t be a peculiarity
at the bedside, but rather the anticipation. If you are a nurse practicing in a
healthcare facility, let us know what your thoughts on Google Glass are.
