Advanced telementoring technology allows surgeons to attend surgery from 500km away
(EMBARGO) 14 October 2021 – New technology, used for the first time in Australian bariatric surgery, allows surgeons to overcome obstacles imposed by COVID-19 lockdowns, training more bariatric surgeons to meet high demand as less than 2% of patients eligible for surgery receive it.
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Wagga Wagga in Riverina NSW is the first regional city to trial telementoring equipment for a first virtual (2-day) training course in Australian bariatrics
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Associate Professor Nick Williams of Calvary Riverina Hospital is instructing the two day training course using the new telementoring theatre equipment, made possible by the Johnson & Johnson Institute
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The virtual training allows surgeons to overcome obstacles imposed by COVID-19 lockdowns to train more bariatric surgeons to meet high demand – less than 2% of patients eligible for surgery receive it
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The software platform, incorporates high quality transmission technology and AR (Augmented Reality), allowing for real time instruction with no visible delay.
On Sydney’s Northern Beaches, three surgeons have been awaiting training on the latest techniques in bariatric (weight-loss) surgery. Their mentor, Associate Professor Nick Williams, a highly experienced bariatric surgeon, is based at Calvary Riverina Hospital in Wagga Wagga, nearly 500 kilometers away. With no room for error, surgical training like this has historically been conducted in person with surgeons travelling intrastate, across country and internationally to perform and oversee live cases. However, state border closures and travel restrictions over the past 18 months have made that near impossible.
Now, a cutting-edge telementoring platform, made possible by the Johnson & Johnson Institute, is enabling highly experienced doctors in any location to attend and give seamless, virtual instruction during a live surgery. For Dr Williams, it is the right technology at the right time.
“Nearly one third of the adult Australian population is classified as obese, yet less than 2% of patients who are eligible for bariatric surgery currently receive it. We have an urgent need to expand the number of surgeons and hospitals providing these life-prolonging procedures, and cannot wait until this pandemic has passed to build those skills,” comments Dr Williams. “Although telementoring isn’t new, past technologies have not been able to service the need for real-time transmission, which is crucial in surgery. Now, thanks to the technology offered through the Johnson & Johnson Institute, we can carry out highly precise procedural training, over significant distances, with a high degree of confidence.”
The system used today features a high-definition video transmission system, allowing surgeons in the operating theatre and surgeons watching on from a computer, to interact in step-by-step instruction, with virtually no delay.
In a telementoring scenario, the instructor’s voice is heard in the operating theatre and a live video feed allows them to either hand-write their instructions onto the screen, or use augmented reality technology to overlay hand movements or images such as patient scans, that can be seen and replicated by the surgeons in theatre (see still images below). Each detailed step of a live procedure is done in-sync with the instructor’s guidance.
In today’s use, the Sydney-based surgeons watched on as Dr Williams carried out a sleeve gastrectomy (weight-loss procedure) on a live patient. Following an instructional series like this, the three surgeons will be trained and able to offer sleeve gastronomy as a service to patients in their region.
“Enabling teaching hospitals to adopt this kind of medical technology opens up a multitide of possibilities,” said Johnson & Johnson Institute spokesperson, Jennifer Spurgeon. “When used to its full potential, this system can boost the success rate of difficult surgeries, while reducing the burden on medical resources. More importantly, it can be expected to eliminate regional medical disparities and contribute to improved patient outcomes. For a country like Australia, with vast expanses between cities and remote territory, the possibilities are almost endless.”
More about the innovation
- Telementoring in as-close-to real time as possible
Until now, slight delays in video transmission, even with high-speed internet, made it difficult to support surgical procedures remotely. However, the system’s cutting-edge data compression and transmission technology enables instruction with no visible delay, or in close to real-time. - Versatile and scalable
Though initially being utllised in bariatrics, this technology can be applied to surgeries in all fields. It has already been trailed in over 90 countries, across 5 continents with over 15,000 procedures and can be implemented in Australia and overseas, with its cloud-based system enabling reach to medical trainees anywhere around the globe. - Crisis-resistant
Whether it be a global pandemic, an act of nature, a conflict zone, or any other scenario that makes travel unsafe, life-saving medical procedures must continue to be carried out and surgeons trained. This accessible technology is designed to work at low bandwidths, even 3G hotpspot or wirelesly. The technology used today eliminates obstacles to make live clinical instruction possible.
About the Johnson & Johnson Institute
The Johnson & Johnson Institute provides comprehensive professional training that helps enable healthcare professionals to improve patient outcomes. With a curriculum that includes on-site classes, virtual reality and app-based surgical simulation training, the Johnson & Johnson Institute assists clinical and nonclinical healthcare professionals as they address the demands of today’s healthcare system, in developed and emerging markets.
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For more information or to speak with a representative of the Johnson & Johnson Institute, as well as any of the surgeons involved in this training series, please contact:
Mitzi Begent
[email protected]
+61439777596
Image 1. A remote instructor draws on the screen to guide an operating theatre nurse on equipment selection
Image 2: A remote instructor uses an AR overlay to more precisely guide the operating surgeons (external camera view)
Image 3: Another view of a remote instructor using an AR overlay to more precisely guide the operating surgeons (internal camera view)
Image 4: View of a live surgical procedure from the remote surgeon’s perspective