News: Google Glass offers physician documentation assistance

It’s a headband with a monitor; or a set of glasses with a computer; it’s a smart phone you wear on your head and control via voice commands—it’s Google Glass and believe it or not it may be changing physician documentation, according to a Wall Street Journal article.

Physicians at Dignity Health in California beta-tested the new technology, which essentially allows the physicians to automatically enter data generated during patient exams into the electronic health record. According to the WSJ article, the physician examines the patient and Google Glass records and streams the information to a separate computer system which combs through the information and populates the EHR as appropriate.

The anecdotal results seem positive. The physicians appreciate being freed-up from their immediate documentation requirements allowing them more face-to-face time with their patients and reducing the amount of time they spend record keeping (according to the article by 33% to 9%).