Hands-free care: testing smart glasses to strengthen virtual consultations
As virtual care becomes a permanent part of Australia’s health system, a smart glasses trial led by Innovation Central Melbourne and La Trobe University is testing whether hands-free video can improve remote consultations, without slowing clinicians down.
Virtual care has shifted from a pandemic workaround to an everyday part of healthcare. Across hospitals, residential aged care facilities, and urgent care centres, clinicians are increasingly expected to assess, treat, and support patients remotely – often with the same speed, confidence, and clinical judgement they would use in the room.
But while video consultations are now commonplace, the tools supporting them have not always kept pace with clinical reality. Fixed cameras can limit what clinicians can see, and technologies that add steps or interrupt workflow quickly fall out of favour in already stretched environments.
For Professor James Boyd, Chair of Digital Health and Innovation at La Trobe University, that tension is familiar. “The worst thing you can do is impose technology onto the system,” Prof Boyd says. “If it creates more work, it won’t be adopted.”
That principle sits behind a smart glasses trial led through La Trobe University’s Digital Innovation Hub, now part of Innovation Central Melbourne (ICM). The project explores whether lightweight, hands-free video can give remote clinicians a clearer view of the patient, while allowing nurses and on-site staff to work naturally, without juggling equipment or slowing care.
One of the clearest-use cases is residential aged care and urgent care, where a nurse is physically present with a patient while a clinician consults remotely. In a typical virtual consultation, a fixed camera can restrict what the remote clinician sees and make physical examinations awkward. The smart glasses approach aims to change that dynamic.
“We wanted to see if we could make the experience hands free for nurses,” Prof Boyd says. “That way they can examine the patient properly while the consultant gets a live view from the nurse’s perspective.”
Under the model being trialled, the nurse wears lightweight glasses with an integrated camera, while the patient views the consultation on a tablet. The remote clinician receives a live video feed and can guide the examination in real time, asking the nurse to adjust position or focus as needed.
Choosing technology that fits real care
Early testing showed that not all smart glasses are suited to clinical environments. The team initially trialled a device called HoloLens, but its design raised some concerns.
“It’s almost like a helmet,” Prof Boyd says. “Some dementia patients really didn’t like it. It seemed too alien.”
The team shifted to lighter devices that more closely resemble standard glasses and began a broader evaluation across residential aged care and urgent care centres. That evaluation is still underway, but early feedback from clinicians has been consistent: improved visibility is valuable, but only if the technology stays out of the way.
“The message was very clear,” Prof Boyd says. “The information is useful, but it can’t add extra steps or make consultations take longer.”
That emphasis on workflow reflects a broader principle guiding Prof Boyd’s digital health work. “If technology creates more work, it won’t be adopted – no matter how clever it is,” he says.
At present, the smart glasses are mainly being used as a video tool. However, Prof Boyd sees potential to expand their role by integrating real-time physiological data into the consultation.
“We’ve already done work looking at bringing vital signs through,” he says. “That’s something I’d like to return to – having that information visible to the nurse, patient, and consultant in real time.”
For La Trobe and ICM, the smart glasses trial reflects a broader approach to digital health innovation: co-design with clinicians, careful evaluation, and a focus on improving care without adding complexity.
