Smart glasses and telehealth services by professionals in isolated areas in Korea: Acceptability and concerns

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Smart glass technology offers remote interaction between health professionals for telehealth, alleviating healthcare disparities in isolated areas. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the professionals’ perceptions of smart glass technology as a tool for telehealth and distance learning. METHOD: This mixed-method study on health professionals in 10 different island areas in Korea involved participants experiencing a smart glass-based telehealth system using the scenario of clinical consultation with remote specialists. A group pre- and post-test design was used to examine the change in attitude and perceived importance among health professionals about using smart glasses in telehealth. RESULTS: Forty-seven participants completed both pre-and post-evaluation of smart glasses. A positive, statistically significant change in participants’ perceptions of smart glasses regarding their implications for telehealth and distance learning (p< 0.05) was found. Fifty-one health workers provided feedback on smart glasses, and a majority expressed their expectations of quality care with telehealth using advanced technology. The main concerns were patients’ privacy issues and inadequate technology for seamless application. CONCLUSION: The incorporation of smart glass technology offers great potential to enrich telehealth as well as distance learning for unskilled health professionals in isolated areas. Future studies are needed to increase efforts to secure a high level of acceptance for clinical consultation with remote specialists on this newly developed device.

Use of Smart Glasses (Assisted Reality) for Western Australian X-ray Operators’ Continuing Professional Development: A Pilot Study

“…Over the last few years, numerous studies have investigated the use of smart glasses (with [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46] and without augmented reality [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]) in healthcare. Given that our study participants lived in rural/remote areas with an expected digital divide issue [47][48][49], the more advanced use of smart glasses, i.e., augmented reality with superimposing virtual objects on video of real world was not used for our XROs to obtain remote support in their radiography practice from their supervising radiographers [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46].…”

“…Given that our study participants lived in rural/remote areas with an expected digital divide issue [47][48][49], the more advanced use of smart glasses, i.e., augmented reality with superimposing virtual objects on video of real world was not used for our XROs to obtain remote support in their radiography practice from their supervising radiographers [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46]. Among the recent studies on the use of smart glasses without any augmented reality [5][6][7][8][9][10][12][13][14][15][16], only four evaluated its use with real patients and their sample sizes were 8 [15], 37 [16], 103 [5] and 622 [14], respectively. For the other studies [6][7][8][9][10]12,13], only one to six simulated clinical scenarios were involved.…”

“…Among the recent studies on the use of smart glasses without any augmented reality [5][6][7][8][9][10][12][13][14][15][16], only four evaluated its use with real patients and their sample sizes were 8 [15], 37 [16], 103 [5] and 622 [14], respectively. For the other studies [6][7][8][9][10]12,13], only one to six simulated clinical scenarios were involved. In contrast, our study covered 497 patients during the intervention period, which could be considered a strength.…”

“…According to the calculation, 565 X-ray images were required for image quality review per arm, i.e., 1130 images in total. The smart glasses used in our pilot program were Real-Wear Navigator 500 (Vancouver, Washington, USA) [10,13,18,19]. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the WACHS Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) and Research Governance Unit (project reference number is RGS0000005633 and dates of approvals were 27 October 2022 and 2 December 2022), and Curtin University HREC (approval number is HRE2022-0610 and date of approval was 28 October 2022).…”

“…Its control can be completely handsfree through voice and/or motion recognition [2,4]. Examples of its recent application areas in healthcare include basic life support [6]; medical [7] and nursing student trainings [8][9][10]; emergency medical service delivery [11,12]; telehealth and telemedicine practice for metropolitan, rural and remote areas involving general and specialist physicians such as neuroradiologists, neurosurgeons and pediatric ophthalmologists; nurses; and emergency medical technicians [5,[13][14][15][16]. Hence, these uses indicate that the smart glasses could be considered a better technological solution for the XROs in WA rural/remote areas to seek professional support from their supervising radiographers in the larger clinical centers to undertake challenging radiography examinations, and improve their radiographic skills, including X-ray image quality, over time as a better CPD channel when compared with the traditional VC support reported in the aforementioned Queensland XROs' CPD study [3].…”