How Google Glass Could Be a Boon for Nurses?

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.