The augmented reality wearable technology was used to assist with the complex medical procedure.
Despite the fact that Google Glass has been falling out of the spotlight over the last while, the device has managed to make headlines once again as cardiologists have now used the wearable technology to assist them in completing a surgical procedure to unblock the coronary artery of a 49 year old male patient.
A custom app was created for the purposes of this procedure and the augmented reality headset displayed the 3D assistance.
The Google Glass app was created to offer the surgeons a 3 reconstruction of the artery, which they could view through the headset throughout the length of the procedure. This made it possible for the physicians to more effectively guide a catheter to the area with the clog. Using a catheter was used to send a stent or balloon into a clogged area is a common method of treating a blocked coronary artery. It is a procedure that is called a catheter-based percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). That said, there are risks involved with this type of surgery, as one of the most challenging components of the process is to image the artery.
Google Glass made it easier for the doctors to use imaging and to view it in a way that could help to guide them.
Computed tomography angiography (CTA) imaging techniques were used to view the patient’s specific blockage. The augmented reality headset then used the custom mobile app to display the patient’s own unique artery and blockage within the field of vision of the physician. This way, the doctor could visualize the patient’s own coronary vessel as the catheter was used for unblocking the area. In this specific surgery, there were two drug-eluting stents that were successfully implanted into the patient.
Using this strategy with Google Glass, it means that the same CTA images become much more usable and practical for doctors while they conduct the procedure as they can view them at the same time that they are inserting the catheter in order to provide them with continual customized guidance.
While fitness trackers and bio monitors remain popular, mental health has become a new wearables focus.
Until now, physical activity has been leading the way in the wearable technology ecosystem, as many people use health and fitness trackers to be able to measure their activity and their progress on that level.
Now, a new product is changing the direction of wearables by looking into tracking stress levels every day.
The goal is not only to allow people to be able to see how their stress levels are occurring with each passing day, but also to provide them with a wearable technology based tool that will let them better manage those daily stresses. The device in question is called Spire. It consists of a small clip-on device that can be attached to a bra strap or to the waist of a wearer’s pants. This allows the device to track breathing patterns in order to determine whether the wearer is tense, focused, or calm.
If the wearable technology detects too much stress, it sends an alert to the user’s smartphone.
Moreover, if the wearer’s breathing speeds up too much, the Spire wearables, themselves, will buzz. The alert sent to the smartphone reminds the wearer to take a deep breath. According to the co-founder of the wearable device, Neema Moraveji, “That simplicity of the feedback is what makes it so applicable and what makes it so actionable in daily life.” Moraveji also added that it is something that is very easy to work into a busy schedule. It is realistic and practical because “You can take a deep breath without stopping what you’re doing, without distracting from what you’re doing.”
Moraveji explained that while tech as a whole may help to contribute to the typical stress levels, these days, wearables may help to provide a solution as there really isn’t any practical escape from technology as a whole. She said that this is one of the driving concepts that helped to develop Spire, as they asked themselves “how could technology change and improve our state of mind?”
The app to which the wearable technology is linked allows a user to track and compare their stress levels and activity levels from one day to the next as well as overall.
