Doctors to use Google Glass for Cancer Treatment

Doctors are looking up patients’ records on Google Glass and checking things online whilst they walk around rather than wading through big files. They have also put codes on the doors to patients’ rooms so that they can instantly access a patient’s medical records. Beth Israel says that it is using the most modern technology to help patients - but privacy campaigners have long said Google Glass is invasive. The hospital has also not outlined how it will seek permission of patients to be filmed by the device’s in-built camera. Google Glass, which costs $1,500 a pair (£980), is currently on limited release to a few thousand people but will be more widely available later this year. It is connected to the Internet via wi-fi and has a tiny screen that lets the user see text and images in front of their eye. Beth Israel has rolled it out in its entire emergency department and and doctors including Steven Horng say it is helping them to do their jobs. Dr Horng said that in January he thinks that Google Glass may have helped to save a patient’s life. The man had bleeding in the brain and needed drugs to stop the hemorrhage but he was allergic to a certain kind. Dr Horng was able to look up the medical files on his eyewear rather than taking vital seconds out to search through his paper files. Each code is unique to the patient, though it is not clear if anyone can access them if they have a scanner. Beth Israel is not the first hospital to use Google Glass and surgeons at Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis have used to in an operation to cut out an abdominal tumor. The surgeon was able to call up MRI scans without having to put his instruments down. At the University of California-Irvine Medical Center, senior doctors are also monitoring junior medics as they make their rounds. Outside of the medical profession, Google Glass is being used by Virgin Atlantic flight crew to check in passengers on trans-Atlantic trips. But there has also been controversy and some cafes in America have banned the eyewear out of concerns for privacy. Google Glass users Cecilia Abadie was also given a driving ticket in California for using Google Glass behind the wheel, though the case was later dropped.