OrthoDoc

There has been a site I have looking into for quite some time now. When I first came across OR-LIVE, I was amazed at the possibilities in the net world. This particular site web casts surgeries live onto the web world, straight from the operating room. All types of surgeries involving disciplines like obstetrics, pediatrics to orthopedic surgery. The schedule is put up on the front page for everyone to see. The best part about it is that you don’t have to pay a dime to do so. You can watch the surgery from the comfort of your home, and any surgery for that matter free of any cost.

For Patients

You get to see more or less what your doc would be doing if you are planning to have a particular surgery done in the near future. Most of the surgical videos have a moderator who in conversation with the operating surgeon reveals the premise of the surgery. You get to know the details of an operative procedure as you keep watching it being performed. You can even mail in your questions for the moderator to answer live! This is not for the weak-hearted who feel queasy on seeing blood. But nevertheless you can switch off the screen when you like and listen to the commentary instead. A schedule is put up by about a month’s advance. Fear not, if you are busy or missed one. They have most of the surgeries archived …they call it OR-Replay. They even have a search box provided and you can pull out the surgical video if you know the surgery by its name. You need a Windows Media Player to run all the videos. Since it is a streaming video a net connection with decent speeds is necessary. Those with ordinary dial-ups can wait for the entire video to load before playing it. Otherwise they will have to watch it in bits. Mind you, the surgeries are quite long, more than an hour at least, so be prepared and keep yourself free. All of these surgeries are performed in the US so the intended audience is per se Americans.

For Surgeons

Most of the conferences these days have a live demo by a senior, experienced and trained surgeon. OR-Live is nothing but an extension of the same demo. The intended audience is world wide. This is most likely to appeal to juniors and students very well. Senior surgeons will always remain skeptical! For example, the two-incision MIS Hip replacement is yet to pick up in India. Seeing the surgery being performed live is a good introduction to the subject in question. But in no way is it sufficient enough to learn and start doing it on your own.

Pros and Cons

This is the age of information and any information is always welcome, especially about surgeries that have always been performed behind closed doors. Seeing it with your own eyes will beat any description of it. Is it informative? Yes it is, you have a moderator to make the sessions interactive. You also have a slide display by the side with diagrammatic representations of the surgery in progress. What I found disturbing is that most of the procedures web cast are relatively new procedures …the ones that involve new or difficult instrumentation. Ideally the site should be web casting the most commonly done procedures. It is not difficult to understand the reason behind this. Most of these procedures are sponsored by the companies involved. And the industry’s concern about selling a new product is only well known. But then on the other hand I can’t help appreciating their involvement in the educative process. Ultimately from the patients’ standpoint we benefit from the surgery more than anyone else. Surgeons require a more serious debate centered around the procedure in question. Such a web site is unlikely to provide the necessary platform. They are best served by conferences involving members of their own fraternity. Certain online journals, particularly New England Journal of Medicine, have attempted to host videos of procedures. But these are of the most basic nature and concern routine ward procedures. Others like Wikiversity have expressed intentions and hold a lot of promise to produce quality learning tools, but are still a long way from bearing any fruit. Until then surgeons have to do with sites like OR-Live.

Update: Those familiar with youtube.com can look out for the user ORLIVEDOTCOM. You will find most of their videos you want at You Tube. Good Luck.

Tags: Live Surgery, Orthodoc, Orthopedic Surgery