Physicians at UCLA are using Google Glass technology to train surgeons in Paraguay and Brazil remotely.
UCLA surgeon Dr. David Chen and surgical resident Dr. Justin Wagner have made it their mission to teach hernia surgery around the world and are harnessing the latest technologies to help.
The team used Google Glass, which is worn like conventional glasses, but houses a tiny computer the size of a Scrabble tile outfitted with a touch-pad display screen and high-definition camera that can connect wirelessly to stream live.
With Chen and Wagner’s help, local surgeons at a hospital in Paraguay in late May wore Google Glass while performing adult surgeries to repair a common type of hernia in which an organ or fatty tissue protrudes through a weak area of the abdominal wall in the groin. This type of hernia is commonly found in both children and adults.
Through Google Glass, the surgeries were viewed “live” via wireless streaming in the U.S. to a select group of leading surgeons who could watch and oversee the procedures. The experts could also transmit their comments to the surgeon, who could read them on the Google Glass monitor. The surgeries are also being archived for later training purposes as well.
The UCLA team also visited Brazil, where they used Google Glass during three hernia surgeries and also streamed a live debriefing session afterwards. The team plans to train 15 surgeons from around the country in September. These surgeons will then become trainers to teach other surgeons at several regional hospitals for underserved patients. Similar programs will be implemented in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Ecuador this fall.
These training projects are part of an educational arm of Hernia Repair for the Underserved, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing free hernia surgery to children and adults in the Western Hemisphere. Chen, who serves on the organization’s board, is spearheading these educational projects with the UCLA team to help “train the trainers” and increase the number of surgeons performing this procedure in underprivileged countries in the Western Hemisphere.
“Our goal is to utilize the latest technologies like Google Glass, Facebook and Twitter in connecting everyone in medicine worldwide for educational purposes that can help improve medical care in resource-poor countries,” Chen said in a news release. “These cost-effective applications can ultimately be used for other surgical procedures and medical training as well.”
