Smart glasses transform patient experience in Northern Lincolnshire

Northern Lincolnshire nurses are piloting innovative new smart glasses for patient home visits this summer, enabling them to spend more time on patient care.

The React to Red (Tissue Viability) team have been chosen to trial the augmented reality glasses, named ‘A-Consult’, which will, provided the patient consents, be able to record parts of a clinical visit.

For example they could record video or just audio footage of them carrying out a task like dressing a wound.

In either case the glasses transcribe the information directly into the electronic patient record and then it’s all safely stored on the cloud.

This is expected to considerably reduce the amount of administrative time teams are spending and free them up to spend more time on clinical duties.

At a quick glance staff will also be able to look up their next appointment in their field of vision and see how long it will take to get there based on live traffic updates.

They’ll also have the ability to share live footage with colleagues to get a second opinion while still with the patient.

The smart glasses up close, enabling clinicians to share live footage with colleagues. | Photo: NLaG

Becky Birchall, Community Tissue Viability Clinical Nurse Specialist, said: “We’re excited to be the first team to try the smart glasses out and can’t wait to take them out on our community visits.

“The glasses have a thermal imaging feature, which I think will be particularly useful for us when we are examining wounds and these features are going to really help us provide the best possible care for our patients.”

As the smart glasses learn from each patient encounter, they will automate key tasks currently performed manually. The cost of the trial is £400,000, funded by NHS England.

Claire Shipley, Assistant General Manager for Community Services at the Trust said: “This is an incredibly exciting project to be involved with and is going to absolutely transform the way our community staff interact with patients; ultimately enabling them to see more people each day.

“We chose the React to Red team for the pilot as we felt they’d see the most benefit in terms of a time saving. We hope that patients will support us as we trial this pioneering technology and will embrace it just as much as our staff have.”

Farhan Amin is Founder of ConceptHealth, the company that developed the technology. He said: “We’re proud to have partnered with NLaG to trial this technology in Community services.

“Aside from the clear benefits A-Consult will bring in terms of reducing the administrative burden on staff, we’re keen to explore the longer-term impact the glasses will have in terms of improving productivity.”