In January, Google announced significant changes to its Glass project, essentially removing product development from the public gaze. You can no longer buy a pair of Google Glasses and the Glass Explorer program ended after nearly two years. This marked a big change, since hundreds of apps had been developed for Glass, and dozens of brands and businesses had already started using the product.
With all the hype last year about emerging uses for Glass in health care, this news might initially seem discouraging. But while the project has moved behind closed doors, a handful of Glass Certified Partners are still authorized by Glass at Work to deliver enterprise applications. Three of these are working in healthcare: Advanced Medical Applications, Augmedix, and Pristine.
These partners show that Glass is still alive in health care. Apparently, these companies still have access to all the Glass they need.
Advanced Medical Applications (AMA)
“AMA’s vision is to connect doctors to patients directly or remotely through the use of Glass from all corners of the globe.” A France-based international app developer, AMA offers a Telemedicine Kit for health care professionals that includes a pair of Google Glasses and the AMA software.
In 2014, AMA’s kit facilitated live surgery training by a French shoulder surgeon for doctors in Japan, which notable success. The company believes telemedicine can provide a solution where an expert’s physical mobility is inefficient or cost prohibitive.
Augmedix
Founded in 2012 as the first Google Glass startup, Augmedix was developed to combat the hours doctors spend on patient documentation in the EHR. The application pushes information to most EHRs and accepts commands to verbally query information from them. The company engages customers in 10 states and across five national health networks, including Dignity Health, the nation’s fifth largest health care provider.
In January Augmedix announced another $16 million in venture funding from its seed investors, bringing its total venture funding to $23 million to date. The company has more than 100 employees, and in 2015 intends to expand operations, develop new products, and establish new partnership initiatives. With a product in high demand, CEO Ian Shakil says, “We’ve repeatedly shown that our service effectively turns three doctors into four.”
Pristine
A developer of smart glass technology across multiple platforms and industries, Pristine’s EyeSight application brings hands-free video communication to health care. The product is HIPPA-compliant, and Pristine says that clients are achieving significant ROI by increasing efficiency and delivering better customer experiences. The company says EyeSight is already being used in the emergency room, for medical education, in rural health care, and to increase response time for stroke patients.
Medical education (including nurse and pharmaceutical education) remains one of the more promising applications for smart glass technology. Last May, UC Irvine’s School of Medicine collaborated with Pristine to become the first to use Google Glass, bringing the “clinical perspective into the classroom.” While Glass is essentially being used as a very expensive video camera, it does have the benefit of being less intrusive and more true to the physician’s perspective.