Undergraduate surgical teaching utilizing telemedicine

Objectives To evaluate the concept of a new telemedicine orientated educati onal application by exposing junior medical students to surgical teaching v ia videoconferencing from the operating theatre and comparing this to the t raditional method currently employed, which requires the presence of studen ts in the operating room. To determine student satisfaction with this novel method and identify deficiencies associated with traditional surgical teac hing. Design Students were connected by video-conferencing equipment 2 Mbit/s per manent virtual circuits that provided two-way picture and voice communicati on. Traditional tutoring involved students attending the operating theatre in set numbers. Video recordings were made during the telemedicine transmis sion for highlighting important factors relevant to the operative procedure . A questionnaire was used to assess the quality of time spent and informat ion obtained by the students. Setting Telemedicine centre and operating theatre, St Mary's Hospital, Lond on. Subjects Junior clinical students. Results The median score for surgical teaching utilizing videoconferencing was 9 (scale 0-10) compared to 5 for traditional operating theatre surgical teaching, All 46 (100%) subjects indicated a willingness to return for the telemedicine influenced method of tutoring compared to 65% of students exp osed to the conventional method. Conclusions Our early experience with telemedicine assisted surgical teachi ng indicate high acceptance and satisfaction rates by clinical students. Fu rther studies to evaluate the objective gain in knowledge associated with t his method is required prior to ics implementation in any future medical cu rriculum.