title: First Virtual Live Conference in Healthcare.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Conferences and meetings bring together thousands of doctors from diverse locations. However, the traveling, accommodation, and arrangement of venues for conferences and meetings are expensive and a lot of time needs to be devoted to these logistics. The purpose of this article was to present our own virtual live conference experience using web conferencing and to briefly outline the basics and advantages of this technology in organization of healthcare conferences.
  
  
  METHODS
  Web conferencing technology was used to organize an international bariatric surgery conference, allowing a large number of attendees to participate and interact from wherever they were, using merely an Internet connection with a video player on their personal computers, laptops, or smartphones.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A virtual live conference saves a lot of time and cost and simplifies the logistics needed to organize a learning conference with worldwide participation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As far as we know, this is the first report of a virtual live conference in healthcare. We see it as the future of organizing experts as well as medical teaching conferences.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, GEM Hospital and Research Centre , Coimbatore, India .
authors.forename: Ramakrishnan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Parthasarathi
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, GEM Hospital and Research Centre , Coimbatore, India .
authors.forename: Rachel M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Gomes
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, GEM Hospital and Research Centre , Coimbatore, India .
authors.forename: Praveen Raj
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Palanivelu
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, GEM Hospital and Research Centre , Coimbatore, India .
authors.forename: Palanisamy
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Senthilnathan
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, GEM Hospital and Research Centre , Coimbatore, India .
authors.forename: Subbiah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rajapandian
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, GEM Hospital and Research Centre , Coimbatore, India .
authors.forename: Ramasamy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Venkatachalam
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, GEM Hospital and Research Centre , Coimbatore, India .
authors.forename: Chinnusamy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Palanivelu
mesh_terms: D050110:Bariatric Surgery; D003226:Congresses as Topic / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D020407:Internet; D049269:Videoconferencing
keywords: bariatric surgery; continuing medical education; laparoscopic surgery; medical conferences; telemedicine; web conference; webcast