Telementoring in endocrine surgery

Abstract

Telemedicine is defined as the use of telecommunications and information to support delivery of healthcare, where distance separates the provider and the patient [14]. Telementoring is an educational technique in a slightly different dimension-mentoring through the use of telecommunications. With the onset of the Internet, access to the more experienced has been on a rapid increase, and with the increasing applications of telecommunication network in medicine, this access has now reached a state wherein the remotely placed surgeons can get the help of centrally placed experienced surgeons in performing complicated surgeries/procedures that may require expert advice during surgery for intraoperative decision making. Besides intraoperative assistance, as has been highlighted by several authors earlier, the authors feel that an additional dimension to telementoring involves incorporating all the events, wherever a mentor's input is needed for the overall clinical care of the patient, such as aid in diagnosis, preoperative treatment planning, and postoperative care. The application of telementoring in surgery has been utilized in various subspecialties like urology [5, 13], gastrointestinal surgery [16, 17], neurosurgery [6], vascular surgery [2], and now in endocrine surgery [1, 10, 19]. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.