Methods

A report on our own experience with VC was combined with a comprehensive PubMed search with the key words telepresence, video-conferencing, video-teleconferencing, telementoring and surgery, trauma, follow-up, education, and multidisciplinary teams. A search through two peer-reviewed telemedicine journals—Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare and Telemedicine and e-Health Journal—and references of all included papers and identified additional reports was conducted.

Results

A total of 517 articles were identified with 51 relevant manuscripts, which included the key phrases. VC is widely used among surgeons for telementoring surgical procedures and in trauma and emergency medicine. Furthermore, VC is widely used by multidisciplinary teams and for the follow-up of patients after surgery.

VC for surgical education

Video-conferencing is widely used for educational purposes by surgeons throughout the world. The rapid evolution of scientific and technical knowledge in surgery explains the demand by surgeons and surgical students for easy and full access to high-quality information [10].

In remote areas, VC has proven to be an effective educational tool. In Norway, graduate education in orthodontics (surgical treatment of irregularities of teeth and the jaw) has so far been available as a full-time 3-year program at the universities in Oslo and Bergen only. To make training in orthodontics more accessible in other parts of the country, a pilot project supported by the Ministry of Health was established in 2002 [11]. The participating institutions were the Public Dental Health Service in Tromsø, University of Oslo, University of Tromsø, and the Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine. The basic elements in the training program were joint courses at the University of Oslo (e.g., laboratory courses, hands-on courses) (about 8% of the curriculum); treatment of patients at the University Hospital in Tromsø (about 45% of the curriculum); and academic training such as seminars, lectures, and courses in “a virtual classroom” (about 45% of the curriculum). The virtual classroom included daily sessions with VC of seminars, courses, or lectures and Intranet access for distribution of teaching material and contact between teachers and students at the university hospitals in Tromsø and Oslo, 900 miles apart. The goals for the project were to train orthodontists who are most likely to stay in northern Norway, provide the new dentist education in Tromsø with teachers for undergraduate students, and evaluate whether this concept could serve as a model for training in other disciplines and hospitals. After 3 years of education and practical training, a joint examination with an external examiner was arranged at the University of Oslo, which the students successfully passed [11].

An Australian study sought to address this issue by providing synchronous tutorials in pediatric surgery using VC at two rural sites with the tutor located at a metropolitan pediatric clinical school. VC surgical tutorials were highly valued by graduate medical students as an educational method [12].

There is a dire shortage of medical specialists, and many countries lack suitably qualified doctors to train medical specialists. VC offers the opportunity to share scarce human resources. A successful educational VC project was recently reported from Africa, where the shortage of pediatric surgeons is acute [13].

Telemedicine, using interactive VC, is an effective method for didactic lectures in a surgical clerkship. This technology allows students to receive interactive lectures at remote clinical sites without the need to travel long distances [14]. Similar results have been reported from both industrialized and developing countries [15–20].

VC in multidisciplinary teams

Bringing together multiple experts to focus as a group on a single patient is now a formidable organizational and logistical challenge. With VC, discussion of a series of patients among a broad range of experts is possible across vast distances, resulting in a level of consultation at a cost otherwise not possible. Multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) should improve coordination, communication, and decision-making between health care team members and patients and hopefully produce more positive outcomes. VC, as a tool to improve communication between different levels of health care, has been described from a number of surgical subspecialties [21, 22].

After introduction of an MDT approach in cancer care, VC has also been introduced as a clinical tool in this setting. Norum and Jordhoy published a study demonstrating the feasibility of VC for clinical and educational support between specialists at the University Hospital of North Norway and colleagues at the oncology and palliative care unit of the Nordland Hospital in Bodø, 300 miles apart. VC was a success in the education and clinical case discussion with the remote oncologists in Bodø. During a 12-month period, 32 VCs were performed; the study demonstrated that telemedicine can be used to incorporate a remote palliative care unit into a university department [23].

Dickson-Witmer et al. recently published a study of a VC network to discuss prospective patient management issues. Information was shared on a weekly basis with discussion of treatment decisions and diagnostic procedures. The VC led to an increase in National Cancer Institute treatment and accrual to cancer control clinical trials [24].

Three studies have published experience from breast cancer surgeons participating in MDTs. The VC was compared with the previous face-to-face clinical meetings through questionnaires, attendance, number of cases discussed, and anthropological analysis. Multidisciplinary case discussion can thus be facilitated by VC [25, 26].

Kunkler et al. proposed a comprehensive methodology to assess the clinical and economic effectiveness of VC in MDTs [27]. This methodology was later tested in a randomized breast cancer trial [28], where 473 MDT patient discussions in two district general hospitals were cluster randomized to the intervention of telemedicine linkage to breast specialists in a cancer center or to the control group of “in-person” meetings. VC was cost-effective, and breast cancer MDTs have clinical effectiveness similar to that of standard “in-person” meetings [28].

There is a shortage of thoracic surgeons in the United Kingdom, and MDT meetings by VC were therefore introduced. The telemedicine meetings saved more than three working weeks of thoracic surgical time during the year [29].

The MDT meetings are used for establishing diagnoses; for tumor, node, and metastasis (TNM) classification; and for treating patients with head and neck tumors. In a Swedish study, telemedicine was introduced to link the regional hospital to two of the three district general hospitals. The conclusion was that costs could be saved by carrying out MDT meetings by means of telemedicine instead of face-to-face meetings [30].

A recent report on cancer services in Wales recommended an integrated cancer service with VC as a clinical tool. Regular MDT meetings reduced the need for patients to travel. They also increased access to expert opinion and reduced the delay in implementing treatment [31].

VC in trauma and emergency medicine

Management of trauma patients requires fast, definitive, precise care as well as major resources and continuous expertise. Most trauma centers around the world are concentrated in urban settings; consequently, most of the world’s population is not covered by specialized trauma systems. Telemedicine for trauma and emergency management is therefore emerging as a new frontier and is evolving as an integrated part of trauma care in modern trauma practice. So far, the use of VC and mentoring over distance has been the cornerstone of the present technologic solutions [32]. In emergency situations, there are a limited number of medical specialities on duty in a local hospital. A possibility to improve the accessibility of emergency specialists is to communicate over distance in the emergency situation.

A VC system, configured and modified for this purpose, was implemented at Longyearbyen Hospital Spitsbergen and the Dispatch Centre at University Hospital of North Norway some 600 miles apart. The technical solution was based on a high-capacity fiberoptic cable between the island and mainland Norway, provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the construction of Svalbard Satellite Station (SvalSat) [33]. In the trauma room in Spitsbergen, a VC unit with an oversight camera and a camera on the ceiling, which was able to zoom and change angles, were installed (Fig. 1). This VC unit was connected with the University Hospital trauma VC room. In this VC room, the trauma surgeons have remote control of the cameras in Spitsbergen (Fig. 2), and biological parameters are shown on a separate screen. From Tromsø the trauma surgeons can follow the development of the situation and together with the local team decide priorities, treatment, procedures, transport, and need for support. During the project period, much of the focus on the testing was on team communication and interaction. The project was intended to improve the communication between the medical staff at the local hospital and the trauma surgeons in the university hospital by using VC. The study focused on the possible benefits of VC. Are the decisions quicker and more correct? Does the communication improve cooperation and local competence?

Fig. 1

Trauma mentoring. The trauma surgeons are located at the university hospital in northern Norway 600 miles away and have remote control of two cameras in the trauma room in Spitsbergen (one camera at the wall and one camera directly above the patient)

Fig. 2

Dispatch center at the university hospital. Screen setup, including a view of the patient, biological parameters, and eventually radiologic images, is performed at the dispatch center

To describe the advantages and disadvantages of communicating through the system, we selected a limited number of cases tested by the emergency teams in the local hospital in Longyearbyen. On the specialist side, the clinical emergency specialists responded to problems as they arose. To measure the value of VC, we compared it to the traditional use of telephone communication. The method of testing was observation and interview of both local teams and specialists at the Dispatch Centre. Preliminary results suggest that this VC solution improves the interaction between the two medical teams and benefits certain groups of patients. Clinical testing and experience is needed to find the right kind of use. It is also necessary to establish routines for organization and communication [34].

Recently a U.S.-based study [35] showed that telemedicine significantly improved evaluation and management of trauma patients at a rural local community hospital. More severely injured trauma patients were identified and transferred to the trauma center more rapidly. Based on experience from the pilot trial between Tromsø and Spitsbergen, a trauma VC network is now being built in North Norway, linking the local hospitals with the university hospital in North Norway (Fig. 3). Other data from University Hospital North Norway show that VC between referring hospitals and a regional neurosurgical service influence patient management and reduce the frequency of patient transfer [36].

Fig. 3

Trauma mentoring during an Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) exercise. A trauma VC network is established in Northern Norway, linking local hospitals with the University Hospital

Latifi et al. [37] described the telemedicine trauma system at The University Medical Centre and the Arizona Telemedicine Program. These networks are not only used by trauma services but also by all other medical disciplines; they serve close to 1.5 million people. The presence of the trauma surgeon, through VC, has infused confidence in local doctors and communities and is being used to identify knowledge gaps among rural health care providers and the needs for instituting new outreach educational programs. A similar trauma program is presented in an Australian paper [38]. A Virtual Critical Care Unit was created between emergency departments of a district hospital and a metropolitan tertiary hospital. Clinicians reported that the Virtual Critical Care Unit allowed greater support to remote clinicians; however, the specialists reported an increased workload.

New ways to use existing technology are emerging. Recently, a group of neurosurgeons reported new ways to use a simple, relatively cost-effective system using existing mobile phone network services and conventional hand phones with built-in cameras to capture carefully selected images from hard copies of scan images and transfer these images from a hospital without neurosurgical services to a university hospital. This method of consultation proved to be highly convenient and cost-effective [7]. For orthopedic patients, VC via multimedia messaging service (MMS) demonstrated good reliability but poor diagnostic accuracy, which could have major consequences in emergency use [6].

Video-conferencing has been shown to be useful in the management of acute stress disorder and/or posttraumatic stress disorder in the aftermath of traumatic stress exposure. Access to expert assistance can have significant effects on prognosis. The authors discuss the potential benefits and some limitations of early trauma interventions using a VC link to access a civilian population whose access to care is compromised by prevailing conditions [39].

VC for follow-up after surgery

Video-conferencing is used as an instrument for follow-up of patients during the postoperative period and for outpatient consultation. At our hospital, we have extensive experience in the use of VC in the follow-up of hemodialysis patients [40] and in dermatology [41, 42].

In addition, a new project has started in the orthopedic department, where a VC line has been established between the university hospital and the district medical center Nordreisa, 155 miles away. In this project, both outpatients and postoperative patients are examined by a district orthopedic nurse under the supervision of an orthopedic consultant located at the university hospital (Fig. 4). This project has now been organized as a randomized controlled trial, where the primary endpoints are cost-effectiveness and patient satisfaction.

Fig. 4

Video-conference follow-up after surgical treatment. An orthopedic nurse in Nordreisa is performing wound care after instructions given by an orthopedic consultant located at the university hospital 155 miles away

Several articles have reported the use of VC in the follow-up of surgical patients. Wallace et al. aimed to compare joint VC between general practitioners, specialists (surgeons), and patients with standard outpatient referral. This randomized controlled trial showed that allocation of patients to virtual outreach consultations was variably associated with increased offers of follow-up appointments according to site and specialty but led to significant increases in patients’ satisfaction and substantial reductions in tests and investigations. Efficient operation of such services requires appropriate selection of patients, significant service reorganization, and provision of logistical support [43].

A study from Finland investigated the use of VC in the examination of orthopedic outpatients. VC was found to be feasible, and the equipment functioned well technically. The conclusion was that VC between primary and secondary care could be used in the examination of orthopedic patients whenever no demanding imaging technology was needed [44].

Whether VC is cost-effective in the follow-up of surgical patients is still debated. The clinical effectiveness and costs of VC in orthopedics between primary and secondary care were examined in an 8-month prospective comparative study. The general surgery outpatient clinics of two Finnish district hospitals were compared. The direct costs of an outpatient visit were 45% greater per patient than for a VC. A cost-minimization analysis of the alternative interventions showed a net benefit of EU 2500 in favor of VC [45].

Another Finnish study had similar results. Wider utilization of the VC equipment for other purposes, or the use of less expensive VC equipment, would make services cost-saving even at relatively short distances [46].

Video-conferencing can be used in almost any medical specialty, although the specialties best suited are those with a high visual component. Wound healing and wound management are thus prime candidates for VC follow-up. Development of a suitable telemedical system in this field could have a significant effect on wound care in the community, tertiary referral patterns, and hospital admission rates [47, 48].

We thank the entire staff at the Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine for useful comments and reports on the various VC projects. We also acknowledge the press section at the Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine for providing all of the photographs used in this article. Grant support was provided by the Northern Norway Regional Health Authority (Helse Nord RHF).

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