Given all of the news coverage about the U.S. health-care reform bill dominating the media last week, it's probably no surprise that I, and perhaps others, missed the news about attendees at the international health film festival ImagéSanté watching Belgium surgeons perform a live procedure.
The surgery was perform by president of the Belgian Society of Neurosurgery Didier Martin at the University Hospital of Liège and broadcast in high-definition 3D video to a movie theater 10 miles away. (Apparently 3D isn't just the rage in Hollywood.)
The project required collaboration between 16 companies and, apparently, a fair bit of careful planning. According to the release (.pdf):
The capture and retransmission of a surgical operation is far from corresponding to the classical conditions of a movie set. Managing the lighting (such as maintaining a proper balance between the ambiance lights and the powerful lights above the surgical table), the positioning of the cameras that must capture the scene without disturbing the actions of the surgical team, the duration of an operation, and the travelling in the customary maze of hallways of a hospital (especially big and complicated in a building such as the C.H.U. of Liège) are among the many elements that must be taken into account.
