High-Tech Glasses Will Enable Nurses To See Through Skin

By Sara Jerome,
@sarmje

Doctors and nurses may feel like they have X-ray vision using a new pair of glasses designed to help them find patients’ veins.

Evena Medical, a Silicon Valley firm devoted to imaging products, announced the launch of the Eyes-On Glasses System this week. It allows them to see the vasculature inside the patient’s body, the company said in a release. 

“The hands-free system projects overlays of digital content onto the user’s field of vision,” Discovery News reported. That allows nurse “to insert even a tricky IV line on the first try,” according to Engadget. 

Current technology is not so easy to use. “The head-mounted display is equipped with vascular imaging technology, which nurses and medical professionals normally have to cart around as a stand-alone device,” Discovery said. 

Evena is looking for distribution partners in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. It expects to begin shipping the product in the first quarter of 2014, “so don’t be surprised when your nurses walk in looking like they just came off the set of an ‘80s sci-fi movie,” Digital Trends reported. 

The product weds two technologies together. “The Eyes-On Glasses System combines Evena’s own proprietary multi-spectral 3D imaging technology with Epson’s Moverio smart glasses — a set of commercially-available binocular HD spectacle,” a Gizmodo report said. 

Evena Medical President and CEO Frank Ball said the product will come in handy when it is hard to find a vein — even in challenge environments such as neonatal and pediatric units.

“Studies have shown that up to 40 perfect of IV starts require multiple attempts to locate and access a vein, which not only wastes valuable nursing time but also delays therapy and causes patient discomfort and dissatisfaction,” he said in the release.

The product will allow nurses to make better choices about which vein to select,

Ball told Gizmodo. The nurse “doesn’t have to aim for the most easily accessible vein, she’ll be able to select the ‘best’ location,” he said.