Liver Tumor Removal Surgery Streamed Globally Using Glass

As a former medical student myself who graduated almost a year ago when Google Glass was making its first baby steps into the medical field I am now starting to witness how this head mounted device could make the traditional medical learning methods during medschool obsolete in the near future.

I recall trying to memorize surgical techniques by heart then hoping for a chance to catch a front spot near a surgeon’s shoulder in the operating room to actually see the procedure first-hand. At least that was the theory as there were high changes for not having a patient with that pathology admitted in our University’s hospital. If we also add that ORs were always overcrowded with surgeons, residents, anesthesiologists ,nurses and medical students you can imagine the learning experience.

Hopefully all of these are starting to change thanks to Google Glass as more than 13.000 medial students have been recently given the occasion to assist a British surgeon wearing Glass remove a liver tumor live.

The surgery procedure conducted by Shafi Ahmed at the Royal London Hospital paves the way for a whole new medical learning experience with the aid of Google Glass. The procedure was streamed globally and closely watched by students from 115 countries. Questions posed were also received live on the tiny prism and got their answers from Dr. Ahmed making the the whole experience complete.

“I am delighted that by using Google Glass technology we are transporting our future surgeons directly into the operating theatre,” said Shafi Ahmed. “Using this technology will support us to deliver high-quality and safe care now and in to the future.”

The patient a 78-year old male from England agreed to share his liver tumor removal surgery with eager future doctors. “I’m happy that it will help educate young people, Pulfer stated.

Although not a new concept as other operations were streamed using Glass in the past, they were only available to a handful of students. This is the first time we are witnessing first-hand point of view medical education brought to the masses.

This is just a glimpse of what Google Glass could bring to the medical field in the future. As we speak different startups have already begun revolutionizing different medical branches with the aid of Glass like diagnostics, patient care (Augmentix) or vital sign monitoring (VitalStream).