Google Glass for Medical Record Keeping

That geeky-looking Google Glass hanging to the side of a pair of spectacles is appearing on more and more of the brows of physicians. Christina Farr, writing for Reuters, reports that a company in Mountain View, California, has developed what it calls the “first wearable health record.” The company is drchrono, Inc. and it specializes in the recording and preserving of patients’ medical records.

The company has developed an app that doctors can wear that allows them to automatically record a consultation with a patient without having to type the information on an iPad or computer. Photos, videos and the conversation are all recorded and stored in a cloud-based storage service that can be shared with the patient and other doctors.

Farr quoted Bill J. Metaxax, M.D., a podiatrist in San Francisco who uses the device in the operating room and in consultations with his patients, who says that 99% of his patients agree to his use of the Glass. Doctors, however, are moving slower. Metaxax believes that only a minority of physicians have adopted Google Glass in their practice.

That will change if drchrono co-founder Daniel Kivatinos has his way. Farr quoted him as saying, “Google is still in the early-stages of determining the most viable use-cases for Google Glass. But some doctors are demanding Glass, so Google is providing resources and support to developers.” He says that as many as 60, 000 health care professionals have registered to use his company’s Glass-based medical record service and the free app. Former Google Health employee Missy Krasner told Farr that she knows of about 20 startups that are looking to provide Glass record-keeping services to this group of forward-looking physicians.