An interesting Glass-in-medicine story comes to us from Italy. On November 12, 2014, surgeons at Careggi Hospital in Florence removed a liver for transplant using Google Glass as an integral tool in the organ transplant procedure.

…the first procedure in the world of organ removal for transplant purposes with the support of Google Glass. The procedure was carried out by surgeons Dr. Emanuele Balzano and Dr. David Ghinolfi from the “Liver Surgery and Liver Transplantation Department” of the University Hospital of Pisa, directed by Professor Franco

Two things make this so interesting. One, the “patient” was having the liver removed for transplant so we must assume deceased. Two, Glass was used for remote consultation with the central transplant agency.

During the procedure, images realized with Google Glass were shared in real time from the Hospital in Florence to the central coordinator of liver transplants, located in the city of Pisa, reducing the time to evaluate the organ conditions, and the “ischemia time”.

I would think that if used in such a manner in the USA, Glass developers and physicians would have fewer privacy worries than when operating on the living. Bringing the remote transplant coordinator “into the OR” for organ evaluation is an incredible time-saving element that may indeed save lives one day.

Vidiemme Consulting, technical consultants and suppliers of the Glass, also recorded the procedure for an instructional video they will be presenting at the upcoming Congress of the Italian Society for safety and quality in transplants held in Florence December 2-3.

Editor’s note: Quotes are from Italian via Google Translate.