Telecomunications in Tele-medicine and in medical Tele-mentoring: The Importance of capturing and transmitting the Feeling of “Touch” over Networks

23 March 2009

Dream, reality or necessity? In 2001, a trans-atlantic tele-robotic surgery, code-named Lindbergh, was performed from NY by Drs. Jacques Marescaux (the principal surgeon) and Dr. Michel Gagner on a 68 year old French patient in Strassbourg, France, through a robotic device there. France Telecom provided the highest quality, private high-speed ATM network. Following the success of “Lindbergh”, Dr. Mehran Anvari (the world-renown surgeon) operated from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and guided Dr. Craig McKinley in his operating room in North Bay, 340 km away in the North of Ontario, performing a surgical procedure with the help of high-speed lines provided by Bell Canada. These tele-robotic surgical operations demonstrate the need of providing expert health service in an emergency in a remote region of a country, and the power of telecommunication networks that carry both the video for patient observation and robotic control signals.