BACKGROUND An increasing quantity of research in the domain of telemedicine show a growing popularity and acceptance of care over distance systems among both clinicians and patients. We focus on telementoring solutions, developed for providing remote guidance to less experienced surgeons. Telestration is often regarded as an extra functionality of some telementoring systems. However, we advocat...

Conventional surgical telementoring systems require the trainee to shift focus away from the operating field to a nearby monitor to receive mentor guidance. This paper presents the next generation of telementoring systems. Our system, STAR (System for Telementoring with Augmented Reality) avoids focus shifts by placing mentor annotations directly into the trainee's field of view using augmented...

Telesurgical telementoring is an advanced form of telemedicine. Utilizing current video technology, medical robots, and high-bandwidth telecommunications, experienced surgeons can guide and teach practicing surgeons new operative techniques.(1) Surgical sciences have been revolutionized by the continuous advancement of laparoscopic, endoscopic, and minimally invasive procedures during the past ...

Using the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) network infrastructure of the AURORA Gigabit Testbed§, we were able to carry out a trial of interactive distance learning. The trial used teleconferencing hardware which converts NTSC television and audio signals to and from ATM cells. This hardware connected the Bellcore VideoWindow(TM) with other apparatus to create a realistic two-way interaction. I...

BACKGROUND The goal of this study was to design and implement a novel surgical telementoring system called the System for Telementoring with Augmented Reality (STAR) that uses a virtual transparent display to convey precise locations in the operating field to a trainee surgeon. This system was compared with a conventional system based on a telestrator for surgical instruction. METHODS A telem...

Using the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) network infrastructure of the AURORA Gigabit Testbed§, we were able to carry out a trial of interactive distance learning. The trial used teleconferencing hardware which converts NTSC television and audio signals to and from ATM cells. This hardware connected the Bellcore VideoWindow(TM) with other apparatus to create a realistic two-way interaction. I...

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS To assess the efficacy of a surgical telementoring program for endoscopic skull base surgery. STUDY DESIGN Prospective case series with surveys of surgeons. METHODS A surgical telementoring program was established for mentoring of a skull base team at the University of Maribor in Slovenia by an experienced skull base team at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center ...

Telementoring in healthcare education has been used successfully to teach technical skills and clinical reasoning when in-person instruction is not feasible; however, previous technology for telementoring had limitations such as narrow field-of-view high latency. Novel virtual reality (VR) livestreaming may address issues traditional 2-dimensional (2D) systems by expanding the field of view whi...

For more than 150 years, doctors have had the ability to transmit medical information to advise and assist their colleagues in remote locations via teleconsultation using a variety of communication modalities. In surgery this has evolved into the telementoring of minimally invasive procedures, particularly, robotic surgery, which have become relatively commonplace in urology. The ultimate progr...

TELEMENTORING USING GOOGLE GLASS Using a wearable computer, known as “Google Glass,” physicians at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), Drs. Barry Uretsky, Abdul Hakeem, and Christian Assad-Kottner (Fig.1) performed an interventional patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure procedure with the assistance of a congenital heart expert, Dr Eudice Fontenot, of the Arkansas Children’s Ho...