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Editorial

Multimedia Manual of Cardiothoracic Surgery: the internet-based educational tool

University Hospital, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland

^_* Corresponding author. Tel.: +41 44 255 22 29; fax: +41 44 255 92 70. (Email: marko.turina@usz.ch).

Key Words: Education • Surgical techniques • Open heart surgery • Internet

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

1. Introduction

In September 2005, the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS) officially launched the Multimedia Manual for Cardiothoracic Surgery (MMCTS) as a novel educational tool for cardio-thoracic surgeons, both for those in training and for the established surgeons in practice. The basic idea was to replace the standard textbooks and surgical manuals with an internet-based educational tool, utilizing the vastly improved technology for presenting the instructive material in color, in moving pictures and with sound, and concentrating on surgical techniques.

Scientific exchange and information in the field of cardio-thoracic surgery is abundantly served with the present, well-established journals and with the annual meetings of the major professional organizations. But there is also a growing need for the transfer of ‘how-to-do-it’ knowledge: the excellent results with novel or complex surgical techniques in the hands of prominent experts might not deliver proper results in another institution. The only method to guarantee the proper application of standard and novel surgical techniques is to carefully observe the procedure when it is being performed by experts. Presently, the EACTS annual ‘Technocourse’ and various topic-oriented meetings, with direct transmission from the operating room, perform this function; but such methods of information exchange have several drawbacks. It can be tedious to watch the whole procedure when one is interested only in some crucial minutes of surgery; and the visualization itself can be deficient. The case being transmitted live might not be an ideal one: for the publication in the MMCTS one can select appropriate material from several previous cases. And not many people have time, leisure and finances to attend such courses, especially when working in developing or underprivileged countries. The basic idea of the MMCTS is to provide high-level information about surgical techniques, which can be . . . [Full Text of this Article]