e-Masterclass in cybersurgery
by Tanya Reed

LATEST technology enabled people to watch the second e-MasterClass, interactive distance learning, in real time on the Internet as it was beamed across the world.

The second e-MasterClass

Professor Ara Darzi impressed participants at the University of New South Wales, Australia, with a presentation entitled  Look no hands — an exploration in cybersurgery which encapsulated his team’s dynamic new approach to micro-surgery and robotics and set out his vision for the future of surgery.

“Imperial College has unique multi-areas of opportunity,” announced the head of the department of surgical oncology and technology at the faculty of medicine.

“The most recent advances have been borne out of multidisciplinary working with colleagues in bioengineering, mechanical engineering and computing here at the College. We really are leading the way in new applications and training techniques in surgery.”

Surgical error is a costly business. Recent statistics presented by Professor Darzi showed that more than 98,000 people a year die due to surgical error in the US.

His team is the first to compile objective data on the influence of external factors on surgery. A recent survey revealed the negative aspect of sleep deprivation.

“Our advances in no way replace the traditional surgeon’s competencies such as knowledge, decision making, dexterity and the ability to communicate,” he continued.

“Rather, we are devising assistive techniques to make a complicated process more precise and therefore more effective and less open to error.”

An invited audience in the video conference studio, South Kensington campus, included Professor Chris Toumazou, head of the department of bioengineering who founded the e-MasterClass in June 2001 as a way of applying interactive distance learning techniques to scientific and technological advances at the College.

To watch a recording of the e-MasterClass event, follow the link http://streaming.ic.ac.uk.