Google Glass Delivers New Insight During Surgery

UCSF News reports on the uses of the Google Glass in the operating room and the pioneering efforts of Pierre Theodore, M.D. in deploying the technology:

Cardiothoracic surgeon Pierre Theodore, MD, goes into the operating room with one main goal: getting his patient in and out of surgery safely and efficiently.

Technology has offered vast improvements to that process and a new technology gadget, the Google Glass, is taking that a giant step further.  

Google Glass, a 1.8-ounce computer configured like a pair of eyeglasses, already is gaining popularity in the medical world as a teaching tool, recording surgeries from the surgeon’s point of view and live-streaming that view to colleagues or students. But Theodore has found another application for Google Glass that he believes could transform the way doctors perform surgery...........

Dr. Pierre Theodore uses Glass when he performs minimally invasive surgery requiring the surgeon to rely on imagery to guide the surgical instruments. Credit Leland Kim/UCSF.

“Often one will remove a tumor that may be deeply hidden inside an organ – the liver, the lung – for example,” said Theodore, who’s also an associate professor in the UCSF School of Medicine. “To be able to have those X-rays directly in your field without having to leave the operating room or to log on to another system elsewhere, or to turn yourself away from the patient in order to divert your attention, is very helpful in terms of maintaining your attention where it should be, which is on the patient 100 percent of the time.”

Theodore is the first surgeon to receive clearance for the use of the tech device as an auxiliary surgical tool in the operating room, by a local Institutional Review Board (IRB), an independent ethical review board designated to approve, monitor and review biomedical research involving human subjects. He was introduced to the idea by Nate Gross, MD, co-founder and medical director of Rock Health, a San Francisco-based startup company focused on the future of digital health.