Virtual medical lectures, telecast of surgeries for students soon

MUMBAI: A medical student sitting in Kolhapur Government College will now be able to witness live surgeries performed by top-notch doctors from Mumbai or elsewhere in the state. That’s not all, lectures delivered by the best faculty across the state will be transmitted live across 16 government medical colleges, with the government finally moving to a virtual learning platform to address faculty shortage and provide students with the best trainers.Doctors from private hospitals such as Jaslok, Breach Candy, Lilavati, who are keen on teaching, will also be invited to teach students from government colleges.
In a move that will change the way medical education is imparted in the state, the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) is all set to launch a virtual education platform in its colleges. Though the infrastructure for virtual classrooms will be initially set up in government colleges, it will later be extended to civic ones too. Dr Pravin Shingare, director, DMER, said, “The idea is to offer students the best of education available in government-run colleges. Our best anatomy teacher could be in a college in Akola, or the best orthopaedic surgeon could be from Nagpur. We are trying to bring them all on a single platform for all students in this process of knowledge-sharing,” said Shingare. Private practitioners can spare an hour once in 15 days for a special lecture, if they are willing to.
Students will also get to witness live surgeries conducted in private hospitals. “Currently, medical students are allowed to see the surgeries from a room outside the operation theatre. In the new set-up, all major surgeries, including angioplasty, transplant and even cancer surgeries in any hospital can be relayed live to students from 16 colleges. We can request some private hospitals too to help us with their recordings,” said Shingare.
A common time-table with the topics will be released for these additional lectures and 2% of the regular lectures will be cut to accommodate these sessions, said Shingare.
While the idea of sharing knowledge through the virtual platform was hailed by experts, some had reservations against the live surgery demos. Avinash Supe, dean of KEM Hospital, which already uses several online platforms to impart education, said, “There are ethical issues involved in the live demonstration of surgeries. It is a critical issue and is widely debated. I would rather prefer recording the surgeries and telecasting them for students later.” But Shingare said there will not be any scope for negligence in the process as an assistant surgeon, who is not performing the surgery, will explain it to the students.
However, Supe added the virtual platform in medical colleges is definitely a welcome move.
Three of the government dental colleges are on the same campuses as the medical ones and can also use the virtual infrastructure for their activities. The infrastructure would be funded partially by the Association of Medical Consultants.