A remote educational system in medicine using digital video.
OBJECTIVE
Telemedicine has opened the door to a wide range of learning experience and simultaneous feedback to doctors and students at various remote locations. However, there are limitations such as lack of approved international standards of ethics. The aim of our study was to establish a telemedical education system through the development of high quality images, using the digital transfer system on a high-speed network.


METHODS
Using telemedicine, surgical images can be sent not only to domestic areas but also abroad, and opinions regarding surgical procedures can be exchanged between the operation room and a remote place. The Asia Pacific Information Infrastrucuture (APII) link, a submarine cable between Busan and Fukuoka, was used to connect Korea with Japan, and Korea Advanced Research Network (KOREN) was used to connect Busan with Seoul. Teleconference and video streaming between Hanyang University Hospital in Seoul and Kyushu University Hospital in Japan were realized using Digital Video Transfer System (DVTS) over Ipv4 network.


RESULTS
Four endoscopic surgeries were successfully transmitted between Seoul and Kyushu, while concomitant teleconferences took place between the two throughout the operations. Enough bandwidth of 60 Mbps could be kept for two-line transmissions. The quality of transmitted video image had no frame loss with a rate of 30 images per second. The sound was also clear, and time delay was less than 0.3 sec.


CONCLUSIONS
Our experience has demonstrated the feasibility of domestic and international telemedicine. We have established an international medical network with high-quality video transmission over Internet protocol, which is easy to perform, reliable, and economical. Our network system may become a promising tool for worldwide telemedical communication in the future.
Hahm
Joon Soo
JS
Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine Hanyang University, Korea. hamjs@hanyang.ac.kr
Lee
Hang Lak
HL
Kim
Sun Il
SI
Shimizu
Shuji
S
Choi
Ho Soon
HS
Ko
Yong
Y
Lee
Kyeong Geun
KG
Kim
Tae Eun
TE
Yun
Ji Won
JW
Park
Yong Jin
YJ
Naoki
Nakashima
N
Koji
Okamura
O
D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D003199:Computer Systems; D003479:Curriculum; D020375:Education, Distance; D005762:Gastroenterology / Q000193:education*; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education*; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007564:Japan; D007723:Korea; D014741:Video Recording