How smart are your glasses?

The question sounds a bit peculiar, but according to a recent article by tech writer Doug Bonderud, it could become much more common if, as he suggests should happen, so-called “smart glasses” make their way ever further into healthcare.

As he sees it, smart glasses and other wearable technologies, including many powered by AI, are in a position to help healthcare providers manage the transition to ever-more telemedicine and at-a-distance medical diagnoses. He cites a report from PWC that puts virtual health delivery at the top of the list of 2021 healthcare issues, particularly in the wake of the COVID pandemic, and he notes that smart glasses, which are regularly used in other industries, could help providers access “specific, patient-related information on demand to help (them) make immediate diagnostic decisions.

According to Dustin Brewer, principal futurist for ISACA, the international professional association focused on IT governance issues, smart glasses are already being used to improve diagnostics from a distance.

“You can have a colleague or another practitioner thousands of miles away assist with diagnoses or use glasses as the vehicle for delivery of diagnostic data from an artificial intelligence consultant,” Brewer explained, highlighting their ability to access EHRs on demand, as well as “the potential role of wearables that patients could use to collect and provide key health data.”

While smart glasses and other wearables are already having an impact on healthcare – “Hands-free documentation,” by which clinicians are able to forego manual data entry but still capture and store key patient data, is just one of the examples Bonderud cites – challenges remain when, particularly given past glitches, it comes to getting providers and the public to accept them.

“Cybersecurity is huge,” noted Becker, for example. “You’ve got these devices that have recording capabilities of audio and video, and they have access to private medical data governed by HIPAA. You need a way to store and transmit that data that’s both secure and privatized.”

The fact is, says Bonderud, smart glasses “exist as part of the larger Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. As a result, they must be safely and effectively integrated with existing IT infrastructure to deliver benefits at scale.”

He also points to a need for more robust IT strategies that encompass multiple tools and environments.

All that said, given the opportunity to collect unprecedented amounts of valuable data, adoption and integration of smart glasses “may offer a way to extend the value of these data assets and bring a new approach to professional training, patient diagnosis and telemedicine frameworks.”