Tele-Education – Postgraduate Education
Authors: Norman J. Nelson , Alsajir M.B. 
Published: April 2003

Telemedicine was originally developed by the space agencies for the health care of astronauts and since that time it has become a useful tool for the care of populations remote from sophisticated medical centres and more recently for those who merely live outside hospital and often reasonably close. The use of video conferencing in medical education has grown progressively over the years and this application has now nearly outstripped its clinical use. There are several uses in postgraduate education and one of the most important is continuing medical education (CME). This allows the best of educational programmes to be delivered using knowledge from anywhere in a country or overseas and delivering it directly to the doctor’s office if necessary by means of a bridge which allows simultaneous interactive teaching at up to 32 different sites. It is also possible to teach practical manoeuvres by means of video conferencing. As part of a CME programme, seminars from colleges and lectures from key figures in a speciality can be delivered to a lecture room at the other side of the world without loss of quality and with full interactive capability. Equally, it is possible to deliver a paper at a conference in another country and take part in the discussion or attend a conference or the part one is interested in without leaving the place of work. A further recent innovation was the demonstration of the feasibility of supervising research work in another country and even of examining the report or thesis for a higher degree from two sites. All these applications can result in considerable cost savings and make it possible to greatly improve interchange of knowledge across national or continental boundaries. They can obviate the problems of relocation of whole families in an alien climate or culture. In some cases, however, travel to another city or country is of value, and it may be best to have a flexible system where travel is still possible in addition to electronic transfer. It is also important to choose the best equipment for the applications intended. This implies compatibility with equipment in the centres to which connections are to be made and the presence of a good after-sales service from the supplier. A good central system is needed to deliver conference or lecture material to peripheral sites. It can be complemented by much less expensive PC-based equipment for individual reception and discussion. For research supervision, a PC-based system with internet connection and a document camera would be ideal. Availability of ISDN lines in the region of setup should be of prime consideration. Even though dedicated lines in countries where domestic communication is cheap and will be heavily used is reasonable, but where international communication is envisaged such a system may be very expensive. If ISDN telephone lines are used for communication, it will also be necessary to determine how many lines to use simultaneously to achieve the necessary quality of picture. Much consideration should be given to this aspect. Satellite communication for video conferencing is also possible and will be economically feasible in the coming years.