CIO Bulletin

seeCOLe — enabling clinicians to navigate and document electronic health record hands-free through AR and voice commands

By blurring the lines of imagination and reality, augmented reality (AR) experiences can amaze and entertain in equal measure. With the development of accessible and affordable hardware, coupled with advances in the creation of photo-realistic and high-quality content. AR technology has evolved into a creative tool that has practical applications across a wide range of sectors, including healthcare.

More life sciences firms are using AR to bring new therapies to life by combining physical and virtual worlds. AR helps create rich, interactive experiences that show how new drugs and medical devices interact with the body. Using this disruptive technology, brand teams, and content providers can provide healthcare professionals with tools to perform their jobs more efficiently and effectively.

seeCOLe provides one of the most admirable (innovative) uses of AR in the healthcare sector. seeCOLe is an AR health app that empowers clinicians who use the electronic health record to review and document patient information by voice command.

In conversation with Carl Anthony Osborne, Founder, and Lead Developer, and Dr. Scheherezade Soltani MD, BSc, Co-Founder, and Chief Medical Officer at seeCOLe

Q. Why was the company founded? What market gap does seeCOLe’s products fill?

Healthcare systems have traditionally been slow to adopt new technologies such as augmented reality (AR). Statistics have shown that 70% of the time, physicians are reviewing clinical data or carrying out documentation. This issue plagues the medical industry as a clinician typically has to navigate their attention to the computer and away from the patient to access electronic health records (EHR). seeCOLe, see Clinical data On Lens, provides an AR health app that enables clinicians to interact with the EHR through wearables such as Google Glass or the Vuzix Blade. The wearables interact with the EHR utilizing fast healthcare interoperability resource API (FHIR).

Q. Can you briefly explain the company’s products and the technology behind them?

seeCOLe’s application provides health data in real-time on wearable glasses and the information consists of pertinent information. Clinicians can use voice commands to access information from the app and perform surgeries/clinics/rounds without necessarily paying attention to a system or staying confined within a location. Our application is a bridge between the EHR and clinicians and we have essentially eliminated the computer screens when reviewing clinical data. Empowering clinicians and patients alike.

Q. Why did you choose to develop an augmented reality-based product?

seeCOLe has an automated integration that transcribes all the information in the EHR and displays those details in real-time. The application also comprises a unique telehealth feature that can help healthcare facilities lacking any medical personnel to connect with an expert far away. They can access real-time feed through the camera within the wearable glass and converse verbally with patients or clinicians. It was easy to utilize AR to combine the clinician experience while interacting with the medical record to conversing with another provider to assess patients. SeeCOLe allows clinicians to do all of this hands-free and share data in real-time during clinics/ surgery/ rounds while addressing the patient.

Q. How can healthcare professionals utilize your products to better serve patients?

seeCOLe allows ease of navigation through the medical records and pertinent information to be in the clinicians’ hands in real-time. This in turn allows us to have a more comprehensive understanding of the patient and their specific needs. As a result patient outcomes are improved.

Effective real-time access to medical records allows for the seamless transfer of key information to the point of need, to better facilitate patient care. This expedient system decreases the margin of error due to real-time access that results in better patient care and outcomes.

The ability to upload images, scan patients details improves efficiency.

Q. Can any other industries use seeCOLe’s products in their current version? If not, do you have plans to make them available for other industries too?

seeCOLe was designed for the healthcare industry, surely other industries can utilize AR to streamline processes such as factories, IT installations or military. We are expanding our reach outside of the hospital and into the hands or viewpoint rather of first responders and medical military personnel to not only treat victims but interact with the local hospital and the clinical data so that the patient story is streamlined and there are no gaps in communication or care.

Q. Would you like us to highlight something important happening in your company that we may have missed asking?

seeCOLe has brought on a chief medical officer, Dr. Scheherezade “Sherry” Soltani MD, Bsc whose goals are to bridge the barrier between technology and daily practice. To improve patient outcomes by humanizing medicine through technology and familiarizing hospitals, private practices, and other healthcare systems with advancements to better serve their communities and improve patient outcomes and decrease clinician burnout.

Revolutionizing clinician response times with disruptive technology

Dr. Scheherezade Soltani MD, BSc, is the Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer at seeCOLe. Dr. Soltani Graduated with a BSc in Biology and a Minor in Psychology before she attained her medical degree. She has extensive experience working in Europe, Asia, Middle East, and the USA.

Carl Anthony Osborne is the Founder and Lead developer of seeCOLe healthcare augmented reality application. He is a clinical informatics application developer with over 15 years of experience optimizing electronic health records at multiple healthcare facilities or creating health IT mobile applications/user dashboards for various startups.