Google Glass Effective for Teletoxicology Consultations

A new study confirms that Google Glass can be used effectively for bed-side emergency room (ER) toxicology consults in suspected cases of poisoning.

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMASS; Worcester, MA, USA) conducted a study to examine the feasibility of using Google Glass to assess poison victims by a remote medical toxicology consult staff. UMASS ER residents rotating on the toxicology service wore Google Glass during bedside evaluation of poisoned patients. The Glass transmitted real-time video of patients’ physical examination findings to toxicology fellows and supervisory consultants, who reviewed these findings.

The supervising consultant guided the resident through text messages displayed on the Glass. They also obtained static photos of medication bottles, electrocardiograms (ECGs), and other pertinent information at the discretion of the supervisor. This was done in addition to standard verbal consult available to the residents. In all, the residents and supervisory consultants completed 18 consults through Glass, while the researchers evaluated the usability—i.e., quality of connectivity and video feeds—as well as attitudes towards Glass.

To safeguard patient information, each device was equipped with Pristine Eyesight, a platform which encrypted the information passing through Google Glass. The toxicologists viewing the video stream found the quality of audio and visual transmission usable in 89% of cases, and reported that their management of the patient changed after viewing the patient through Google Glass in 56% of the cases. As to treatment, based on findings obtained through Glass, the toxicologists recommended specific antidotes in six cases. The study was published in the August 2015 issue of the Journal of Medical Toxicology.

“Because Google Glass is relatively unobtrusive to patients, can be operated hands free and is extremely portable, it has a distinct advantage over traditional telemedicine platforms,” said lead author toxicology fellow Peter Chai, MD. “Google Glass is positioned perfectly as an emergency medicine telemedical device; placing an expert at the virtual bedside of the patient has huge advantages. It brings a specialist to patients that might not otherwise have access to that kind of expertise.”

Google Glass is a wearable computer with an a camera, GPS, bluetooth, microphone, and a small optical head-mounted display (OHMD) that sits unobtrusively in the corner of one lens of a pair of glasses, displaying information in a smartphone-like hands-free format that can interact with the Internet via natural language voice commands. Glass is being developed by Google (Menlo Park, CA, USA).

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