Augmendix Glass App Raises $3.2 Million In Founding
Over the time, Google Glass has received a lot of attention in the medical field and for good reasons. There will be a day when you will see the device deeply integrated in almost every hospital, worn by every doctor.
If you haven’t heard about Augmedix, then you should know that the tech company, located in San Francisco, has recently succeeded to gather funds of $3.2 million from companies like Emergence Capital Partners and DCM, to continue their research on Glass and it’s “vocation” in the medical field.
The start-up company has offered an enormous help by developing Glass applications that push medical files to the device. The main purpose of this would be, of course, to save doctors the time they’d spend to look that information up on their tablets or clipboards. In order to better understand the workflow and where would Glass be needed most, Augmentix is also introducing Google’s wearable devices to doctors all over the USA.
The most interesting part of the app developed by Augmentix, is that the doctor doesn’t necessarily have to say the usual command “Ok, Glass…”, because the software can detect key words in the conversation between the doctor and his patient and display medical documentation, relevant to the discussion, on Glass’s tiny display. Thus, the doctor could pay more attention to the patient instead of going through the documentation himself.
It is more than obvious by now, that Google Glass can truly improve doctors work and help them better focus on their patients, and not just for pushing data; being able to take photos and videos easily is also an important clock card. Doctors would be able to record training materials, would be able to keep a photo history of a patient’s evolution and so on. Even though Augmentix target seems to be, for now, pushing the medical data on Glass and making it easier to access, we’re sure that at some point they will be focusing on adapting those Glass features, as well.
And while tech people and even doctors were afraid that patients would reject Glass, patients actually love it and usually want to know more about the device.
Ian Shakil, chief executive of Augmedix, says that during their voyages around the country, people haven’t expressed anguish or fear when seeing the device; only one percent of the patients asked doctors to take off Glass. Considering the amount of online hate, you’d believe that the percentage should have turned up a lot higher.
The Augmentix team has some more aces hidden in their sleeves, but for now they’re keeping that information to themselves. In the near future, they will probably secure more contracts with big EHR providers, but no more names have been made public for now.