Gadgetory

it's a routine lung biopsy for dr. Pierre Theodore alongside his surgical tools he's experimenting with a piece of tech Google glass inside of the glass what I'm seeing are CT images which are basically cross-sectional x-rays of the patient's chest and it allows me to operate at the same time I have this critical data right in front of me wearing Google glass is like wearing your smartphone on your face you can read your email make phone calls and take videos and photos doctors and other hospitals have used Google glass to broadcast live video of their surgeries dr. Theodore is instead focused on getting information in lieu of looking behind him on a screen dr. Theodore can just take a quick glance up which he says saves time and improves patient safety the advantage of the Google glass is that the images come up really at exactly the same point of care so the physician doesn't really need to leave the operating room doesn't need to turn a different direction doesn't need to leave the operating room table in some cases even scrubbing out to look at films during the hour-long lung surgery dr. Theodore says he called up eight different images and had Google glass activated for roughly a quarter of the time sometimes that can really matter to not have to change one's attention at a critical portion of an operation so what we're really seeing in my mind is kind of a tantalizing glimpse into the future one of dr. Theater's goals is to take this wearable technology out of this operating room worldwide to hospitals in developing countries you can service both a teaching tool and a way of augmenting the skills of physicians in resource-limited places the Google glass pilot program at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center has uncovered a few limitations of the technology voice commands are insufficient the battery drains quickly and the image size is relatively small still it's an encouraging first step in San Francisco I'm Kara Tsuboi cnet.com for CBS News you