UK equips nurses with smart goggles to see more patients

London: Nurses in some parts of England will test smart goggles during visits to patients’ homes, while Britain’s ailing National Health Service is resorting to digital devices to improve services.

As long as individual patients agree, the virtual reality headsets help nurses transcribe medical records, automate administrative tasks and share live recordings for consultations with hospital colleagues.

The goggles are also equipped with thermal imaging technology for examining wounds and injuries. The trial will be carried out in North Lincolnshire and Goole, England, the NHS said in a statement on Saturday.

The glasses, developed at a company founded by a GP, are part of a £6million (US$7.1million) effort to improve the care of ambulances and community services at a time when healthcare workers burned out by the demands of the Covid pandemic. Struggling to meet increasing care demands.

Earlier this year, the NHS also handed out patients with Parkinson’s disease with smartwatches so doctors can access their condition remotely.

It is estimated that community nurses spend more than half of their day filling out forms and manually entering patient information. The aim of the study is to find out whether the goggles will help give patients more time for clinical tasks such as checking blood pressure and dressing wounds.

Years of underfunding and the incessant waves of COVID-19 outbreaks have taken a heavy toll on the NHS. Nurses in England are about to be voted on strike over pay amid a mounting cost of living crisis.

Bloomberg

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