A digital streaming platform has been permanently installed there for the first time in Austria. This means that experienced cardiologists around the world can attend procedures as they normally would.
Because of the covid-19 pandemic, contacts are limited for future doctors’ training. At Ordensklinikum Linz Elisabethinen in Austria, medical education was maintained live from the operating rooms. The first digital transmission system has been permanently installed in Austria, meaning that heart experts from all over the world can now join the procedures as if they were physically attending.
Being able to attend an operating procedure is the basement of a solid education and training in the medical field. Procedures that take place at the cardiac catheter laboratory are now available all over the world on a digital platform, allowing experts to watch and work in real time.
Helmut Pürerfellner, Cardiologist, Ordensklinikum Linz Elisabethinen:“This is the future which we started right now, I think this is the kind of technique which we will need in the next years, not only in times of a pandemic.”
In the heart rhythm laboratory are cameras and monitors that can be remotely controlled. All the data gathered can be manipulated individually; and thanks to a control room you can access the information worldwide, simply using the internet.
“There are different scenarios, for example I can be consulting, watching a procedure and giving tips to a foreign colleague, or they can be watching us, seeing how we do a procedure, maybe for the first time, and helping us because they are virtually with us.”
“There is also a zoom feature that allows to take a closer look, exactly at the right moment with the camera” says Helmut Pürerfellner, Cardiologist at the Ordensklinikum Linz Elisabethinen.
With a perfect transmission of every single detail, the Medinbox system gives doctors a real viewing and an insight as if they were standing in the operating room themselves – with a strict compliance of data protection.
“This works in real time, without noticeable latency. It is unbelievable the quality in which it is transmitted! How sharp the signals are which are normally just screens being taped, and this would not look so good. But now we have very clear and sharp images.” Adds Helmut Pürerfellner, Cardiologist, Ordensklinikum Linz Elisabethinen:“
The experienced professionals can thus train their younger colleagues, and in this case, in interventional treatment of cardiac arrythmias, allowing attendees to follow and participate interactively in the procedures. There are also significant advantages for the patients.
“The patients benefit from being in a center where the medical staff is up to date. Because such a system makes our rhythmology center a reference in Austria, to promote and make new developments”.
Networking with other centers who possess digital platforms has become a prerequisite and can significantly enrich the exchange of knowledge in the medical field.
-Translated reportage from ORF