Patients Wear This When Surgeons Wear Google Glass!

The patient wore an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset while the surgeon put on a Google Glass. The patient, a 62-year-old woman, wore the headset to ease her anxiety about the upcoming knee replacement surgery. The surgeon wore the Glass to stream the surgery to watching medical students. The surgeon was Gerardo Garces, M.D. and the hospital was Spain’s Hospital Perpetuo Socorro.

The device worn by the woman was successful in reducing her anxiety to the point that, though she had originally requested a general anesthetic, she now chose local anesthesia for her surgery. According to Joseph Keesnan, a writer for Fierce Medical Devices, the Oculus Rift displayed a nocturnal beach scene with clouds, fireworks and balloons while playing calming music like Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. Droiders, the Spanish software developer that created the program, said its testing has shown the simulation decreases heart rates and blood pressure.

The hospital said in a statement, “After introducing Oculus Rift virtual reality glasses into the operating theatre for the first time, the traumatic feeling that the patient experiences is improved. This way, we can achieve full immersion in a virtual world that keeps the patient away from the sounds and lights of an operating room and takes him to a relaxing world, very different from the present.”

Droiders also developed the software application for the Google Glass worn by orthopedic surgeon Garcés that allowed medical students to watch the procedure.