Google Glass Goes To The Operation Theatre

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Glass

The technology that is functional, useful, regularly used, simplifies and betters our lives or serves a beneficial purpose is more “green” than a solar-powered gadget that just gathers dust somewhere.

Google Glass, a much hyped optical head-mounted display, is likely to be more useful in operation theatres.

For years, traditional methods did not give surgeons a clear line of sight within organs especially in unblocking the coronary artery or cardio-thoracic surgery.  Surgeons used 3D imaging to help them visualize complicated surgeries.

New, more effective, imaging methods are starting to be used, but the projection of those images on large screens in the OR is expensive.  That’s where Google Glass comes in.  Cardiologists in Warsaw, Poland were recently successful in performing a PCI procedure to unblock a fully occluded artery in a patient with the aid of Google Glass which is a hands-free device.

The surgeons saw clear images of the vessel right in their line of sight as the procedure took place.  An app was developed by physicists from the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modeling of the University of Warsaw that offered voice-controlled commands for zooming and panning the images of the vessel while the surgeons accurately guided the catheter wire into place, finishing with the implantation of two drug-releasing stents.

Researchers say that  the headset can be used for better planning and guidance of interventional procedures, while offering better efficiency and comfort for surgeons — cardiologists and otherwise — carrying out the interventions, all at a cheaper price than large display screens.  They even foresee an additional features like filter lenses to protect against X-rays for daily clinical use.

Even though Google halted production on its prototype Glass earlier in the year, but the company says it has not shelved the idea totally but, turned it over to ex-Apple designer Tony Fadell (who also co-invented the Nest thermostat) to work on a new-and-improved version to be released sometime in the future.

Source: Tree Hugger

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