Giving Compass' Take:

· According to Global Citizen, new "smart glasses" developed by Iristick come with built in cameras and zoom functions to help doctors direct surgery in war zones without actually being there themselves. 

· How is technology changing the way doctors interact with patients? What are some other advancements in technology that have helped progress global health? 

· Here's more on how technology is expanding global access to healthcare. 

The future doesn’t seem quite so far away anymore.

The video phone glasses from Back to the Future II seem almost prehistoric in a world with Google Glass and virtual reality headsets. Even those creepy memory lenses from Black Mirror might be brought to life after Samsung patented similar technology that takes a photo when the wearer blinks.

We might be a few mad scientists from Dan Aykroyd’s Ecto Goggles — the specs that help him see invisible ghouls in Ghostbusters — but for surgeons operating in dangerous war zones around the world, futuristic glasses could soon be saving lives.

Who you gonna call? UK aid, apparently.

The glasses, developed by Iristick, have built-in cameras with a remote-controlled zoom facility.

It allows surgeons — who can control the zoom feature from thousands of miles away — to provide guidance to doctors and local health workers in areas of conflict to operate on people in real-time. All it needs is a mobile phone to power it.

Read the full article about these smart glasses by James Hitchings-Hales at Global Citizen.