Broadband Telemedicine: Teaching on the Information Superhighway

Abstract

The INSURRECT project uses the SuperJANET network to link six sites in the UK for interactive teaching and learning in surgery, an area of higher education where visual information is critical to the learning process. Collaboration between the six universities allows students access to a larger pool of surgical expertise and case studies than any single institution could provide. The project expects to improve the time that medical students can devote to surgery by up to 50%, by providing both supervised and unsupervised access to important visual information and case studies. Finally, the reduction in student numbers in operating theatres should reduce the infection risk to patients. A key component of the project is the central image resource, located in London, but allowing students and surgeons access from anywhere on the network. This paper describes the development of the interactive surgical teaching system and our experience with it during the first 18 months. One subjective observation, noticed after just one term's teaching, was the improved quality of the teaching.

What do students think about telemedicine?

“…The rapid growth of the Information Superhighway is changing our working habits as well as our methods of learning [1][2][3][4][5][6] . Althoughthe enormous potential of telecommunications technology is obvious, it is hardly used in medicine at present 7 .…”

Organizational Learning, Diffusion of Innovation, and International Collaboration in Telemedicine

“…For example, research on telemedicine as a teaching tool has documented considerable interest and some success in improving learning. [15][16][17][18][19] Studies report learning taking place on the part of the medical personnel assisting in the delivery of treatment under the remote direction of a physician through telemedicine technology. 16,20 Moreover, tele-education and teleconsultation in surgical education has been shown to improve diagnostic and surgical skills.…”

Design issues and alternatives for setting up real-time interactive Telelectures

“…The continuous technological advances in networking and multimedia systems stimulate the development and/or improvement of telelearning environments [6] [7] [ 10]. We use the terms "telelearning environment" for naming the set of hardware and software components permitting the delivery of learning services from/to distant places.…”