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Swiss creates Google Glass app for medics

Caroline Bishop
Caroline Bishop - [email protected]
Swiss creates Google Glass app for medics
The Google Glass app will allow paramedics direct contact with doctors in emergency situations. Photo: Rijans007/Wikimedia Commons

A doctor in Switzerland has created an app allowing paramedics to use Google Glass to improve the quality and speed of treatment for emergency patients.

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The app, devised at the University of Applied Sciences (HES-SO) in Sierre, canton of Valais, aims to save crucial minutes in an emergency medical situation by enabling specialist hospital doctors to interact directly with paramedics working at the scene, reports Valais newspaper Le Nouvelliste.

Using the functions of Google Glass, doctors will be able to see and hear exactly what the paramedic faces, and can give specialist medical advice before the patient is transferred to hospital.

The app also allows information such as heart rate, temperature and allergies to be available instantly to doctors.

Speaking to Le Nouvelliste, post-doctoral student Antoine Widmer, who developed the app, said: “Thanks to the integrated camera in the glasses, the specialist can see what’s happening in real time and better guide the paramedic in his work.”

Valais paramedic Olivier Verdu welcomed the app, saying “Normally we send vital statistics to the hospital by email. These glasses will help us to save time and allow us to stay in permanent contact with the patient.

“However we will have to see if in practice the app gets in the way. Because when we are watching a screen in the corner of the glasses, that will take our eyes away from the patient,” he added.

Although the app would transmit a patient’s personal details through Google Glass, Widmer assured the paper there are no confidentiality issues.

“The details are encrypted and sent directly from the ambulance to the hospital without going through a server. Google won’t receive the information,” he said.

The app will be available for sale by the time Google Glass is launched commercially in Europe, planned for 2015.

See how the app works in this video created by HES-SO:

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