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This HoloLens App Hopes to Offer Paramedics an Augmented Reality Assist During Emergencies

Jan 4, 2018 04:18 PM

A new telemedicine application for the Microsoft HoloLens is promising paramedics and EMTs a new tool for diagnosis and treatment of patients in the field.

Designed through a partnership between medical software company Exelus and HoloLens developer HoloForge, Nomadeec leverages the gesture-based commands of the HoloLens to give practitioners access to customizable modules for patient assessments, clinical exams, and patient profiles.

Nomadeec Mobile Telemedicine/YouTube

With Nomadeec, HoloLens can also act as a heads-up display for monitoring a patient's vital signs, as the platform can connect to numerous types of medical devices, such as ECGs, thermometers, stethoscopes, and ultrasound devices, via Bluetooth. And when practitioners need a second opinion from a medical professional, the Nomadeec system can connect them to those medical experts via video conference.

While Exelus and HoloForge emphasize Nomadeec's HoloLens capabilities, the platform is also compatible with smartphones, tablets, and smartglasses running on iOS, Android, or Windows.

Nomadeec Mobile Telemedicine/YouTube

The solution emerges at the nexus of two growing industries. Experts placed the value of the telemedicine industry at $24.9 billion in 2016 and estimate that it could grow to $113 billion by 2025. Meanwhile, the augmented reality industry is expected to exceed $50 billion by 2024.

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As impressive as it is that technology like this exists today, the real question is: Is it practical? One can imagine an EMT fumbling with hand-gestures while a patient struggles to breathe when voice commands could provide true hands-free computing. However, as both industries mature, it's not difficult to imagine AR-enabled telemedicine more effectively assisting treatment in a field where time is literally a life-or-death factor.

The companies will host live demonstrations of the software at this year's CES (Venetian Booth #43852 on Level 2, Halls A-D) at the Sands Expo Conventions Center in Las Vegas.