Google Glass™ became the surgeon’s eyes “teleported to Japan.” The device enabled him to film the operation himself while it was underway and talk to his colleagues, describing the stages in the operation and answering their questions.

The private hospital in Saint-Grégoire on the outskirts of Rennes joined forces with two companies in Rennes (Eliga and AMA) to create a world’s first in Rennes on February 14 – the streaming, via Google Glass™, of a shoulder operation being carried out by Dr. Collin, orthopaedic surgeon at the hospital, watched live by his surgeon colleagues at Nagoya Hospital in Japan.

They watched the operation not only as if they were in the operating room but also as if they themselves were operating on the patient. Google Glass™ became the surgeon’s eyes “teleported to Japan”. The device enabled him to film the operation himself while it was underway and talk to his colleagues, describing the stages in the operation and answering their questions.

“Google Glass™ live surgery” is the result of a discussion on the need for interactivity in surgical training. This quite naturally took Dr. Philippe Collin to Eliga, a start-up in Rennes set up by Alain Papazoglou and Estelle Bagot, who designed the Youslide program that provides interactivity between the audience at a conference and the speaker, wherever they are. Eliga then set up a meeting with AMA, a company founded in 2004 by Christian Guillemot. It is a sister company of Ubisoft, Europe’s leading designer of mobile apps, and one of the few companies in Europe to develop programs on the famous glasses. It was able to add real-time video broadcasting to the interactive training.

“Great importance is placed on the sharing of knowledge between surgeons and this is now much easier thanks to digital innovations,” said Dr. Philippe Collin, who last year was awarded a prize for the best scientific paper at the International Congress of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery (ICSES) held in Nagoya, Japan.