When we reported on Augmedix's $17 million funding round last week, we noted that most of the other healthcare-focused Google Glass startups had pivoted into other areas. We mentioned Pristine, Wearable Intelligence, and Remedy, but left out a few more, including CrowdOptic, an enterprise livestreaming company that, in fact, continues its work in healthcare.
CrowdOptic today announced its first integration with Cisco's team communications app Jabber. Physicians at the UCSF Medical Center at Parnassus will be able to access Cisco Jabber through their smart glasses, using CrowdOptic software. The technology can be used for real time virtual consults or to livestream surgeries or other procedures, in order to train surgeons and medical students.
"The integration will allow for streaming live clinical procedures to multiple individuals within the hospital setting through the Jabber technology for training and educational purposes," a CrowdOptic spokesperson told MobiHealthNews in an email. "The integration will also allow for video communication through Jabber hospital wide, connecting the four campuses, clinics and patient transport within the system. The physicians will have live, real time access to patients throughout the hospital (remotely) using the Jabber/Crowd Optic [system]."
UCSF has been working with CrowdOptic since 2014, when they began using CrowdOptic to test how the software could help faculty in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. During the trial period, surgeons at UCSF used the app to communicate with remote physicians and also train residents. The broadcasts of these surgeries were sent to remote and local televisions so that any number of hospital faculty members could watch.
"We see strong potential for technology to enhance the training of physicians who will benefit from live perspectives of views that have been to date restricted by the realities of modern day orthopedic surgery," UCSF Chair of Orthopaedic Surgery Dr. Thomas Vail said in a statement at the time. "These include physicians developing new clinical procedures and techniques to more fundamental training principles such as understanding the 3-dimensionality of anatomy required in modern orthopedics."
Earlier this month, the company announced that it had completed its 10,000th enterprise livestream and it has made $1.5 million in contract bookings from its top four customers: UCSF, the Denver Broncos, Futton, and an unnamed medical device company. Last month, CrowdOptic launched its first hardware product, an easy-to-use streaming camera called the CrowdOptic Eye.
One other startup we've written about previously was also working on surgical streaming: VitalMedicals, who had tested their software at Stanford University and raised a $1 million round last February. Like a few other Google Glass startups, VitalMedicals has changed its focus since then. It's also changed its name: In August of last year it became Vital Enterprises and it now no longer lists healthcare as a customer vertical on its website.
