Sept. 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Vuzix® Corporation (NASDAQ: VUZI), (“Vuzix” or, the “Company”), a leading supplier of Smart Glasses and Augmented Reality (AR) technology and products, today is announcing that the Company’s M400 Smart Glasses are being used by University Malaya Specialist Centre (USMC) in Malaysia and were part of a successful COVID-19 pandemic response study to limit the numbers medical personnel attending to the neurosurgical patients as a protective measure to conserve personal protective equipment.

The study was centered around the Vuzix M400 Smart Glasses which were used during the daily ward round on neurosurgical patients in the Neurosurgery ICU at the University of Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) in Malaysia using MEDCOM Vision software.  Prior to the use of smart glasses when the patient is in the isolation room, it was difficult to see the patient, it was difficult to monitor them, because of COVID-19 standard operating procedures.

The goal of the study was to determine if telemedicine delivered through smart glasses was feasible and effective in an alternative method of conducting ward rounds on neurocritical care patients during the pandemic.  As part of the study a random pair of Neurosurgery residents and specialists conducted consecutive virtual and physical ward rounds on neurocritical patients. A virtual ward round was first conducted remotely by a specialist who received real-time audiovisual information from a resident wearing smart glasses integrated with telemedicine.  Subsequently, a physical ward round was performed together by the resident and specialist on the same patient. The treatment management plans of both ward rounds were compared and the intra-rater reliability was measured.

During the study ten paired ward rounds were performed on 103 neurocritical care patients with excellent overall intra-rater reliability. Nine out of ten showed good to excellent internal consistency and one showed acceptable internal consistency. Qualitative analysis indicated wide user acceptance and high satisfaction rate with the alternative method.

The conclusion from the study confirmed that virtual ward rounds using telemedicine via Vuzix M400 Smart Glasses on neurosurgical patients in critical care was feasible, effective and widely accepted as an alternative to physical ward rounds during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A copy of the recently published Journal Pre-proof of the medical paper can be accessed below:

Munusamy T, Karuppiah R, Faizal A Bahuri N, Sockalingam S, Cham CY, Waran V, Telemedicine via Smart Glasses in Critical Care of the Neurosurgical Patient – A COVID-19 Pandemic Preparedness and Response in Neurosurgery, World Neurosurgery (2020), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2020.09.076.

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About Vuzix Corporation (Vuzix)

Vuzix is a leading supplier of Smart-Glasses and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies and products for the consumer and enterprise markets. Vuzix’s products include personal display and wearable computing devices that offer users a portable high-quality viewing experience, provide solutions for mobility, wearable displays and augmented reality. Vuzix holds 166 patents and patents pending and numerous IP licenses in the Video Eyewear field. Vuzix has won Consumer Electronics Show (or CES) awards for innovation for the years 2005 to 2020 and several wireless technology innovation awards among others. Founded in 1997, Vuzix is a public company (NASDAQ: VUZI) with offices in Rochester, NY, Oxford, UK, and Tokyo, Japan.  For more information, visit Vuzix website,  Twitter and Facebook pages.