UCLA Surgeons Use Google Glass for Remote Training

Surgeons at UCLA are using Google Glass to help train colleagues in Brazil and Paraguay master the art of hernia surgery.

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 United States 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, led by David Chen, M.D., also visited Brazil, where they used Google Glass during three hernia surgeries and also streamed a live debriefing session afterward. 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.

“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,” said Chen. “These cost-effective applications can ultimately be used for other surgical procedures and medical training as well.”