The Saint Barnabas Health Care System (SBHCS)
has partnered with Liberty Science Center and The Sharing
Network to produce Live From... Kidney Transplant,
a major expansion in "real-time" interactive education.
The program, a first of its kind in kidney transplantation,
is a live audio and video connection between two functioning
operating rooms at Saint Barnabas Medical Center and Liberty
Science Center (LSC). As the LSC audience watches renal
transplant surgery in progress, they are able to talk with
the members of the operating room team while the operation
is in progress!
This program gives visiting students an
opportunity to learn about the critical importance of organ
donation, career opportunities in the health professions,
healthy lifestyle choices and scientific breakthroughs.
"The project reflects the commitment of
Saint Barnabas and the entire Renal Team to use technology
to provide insight into the field of medicine and highlight
advances in transplant surgery," says Stuart Geffner, M.D.,
Director of Transplant Surgery, Saint Barnabas Health Care
System. "As a surgeon, I encourage any creative educational
techniques that might inspire a future surgeon or other
medical professional."
The Surgical Experience
Live From... Kidney Transplant
program provides a "real-time" observational experience of
two transplant surgical procedures: in the first operating
room, students observe the surgical team retrieving the kidney
from the live donor patient, cleaning and preparing the kidney
for transplantation and then transporting the kidney into
OR 2 where the kidney is implanted into the patient recipient.
Removal of the kidney from the donor is performed laparoscopically
(through the use of an optical instrument inserted through
the abdominal wall to visualize the interior). The Saint
Barnabas team is one of the most experienced in this area,
having performed laparoscopic kidney removal since 1998.
How it Works
In each of the two operating rooms, there is one wall-mounted
camera, plus medical equipment cameras, a wireless microphone
attached to the surgeon, several medical monitors and
a remote monitor for viewing the Liberty Science Center
student audience. The room cameras are controlled by
an SBHCS employee for the purpose of broadcasting the
surgical procedure. The Liberty Science Center classroom
is equipped with two 35" video screens to receive the
feed from the hospital, along with a microphone and camera.
In the Liberty Science amphitheater, an
LSC educator acts as facilitator for Live From... Kidney
Transplant. The educator coordinates the interactive process
with a surgical nurse in the operating rooms who keeps
the students informed of the progress during each surgery
and assists in fielding questions to the surgical staff.
In addition to viewing the surgeries, students have access
to the surgical instruments used during the operating and
clinical models of the kidney.
This program is made possible through generous
support from BD and Roche.
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