First, I should start off with the note that I am a pre-med major, which means that I get really excited for any exposure to medicine in action. Meaning, I ask a lot of questions and I always want details. All the details, all the gory, wonderfully detailed details. :-D I'm not sick, I'm not twisted, I'm not some kind of sociopath. If you know any pre-med majors or doctors-to-be...they will most likely be the same way. We are fascinated by the functioning of the human body, and the details are as exciting as following the stock market is for business majors. It's just...our thing.
That said, I now present the coolest thing on the internet I've yet to discover. Live surgeries. No, seriously. They webcast the surgery, which vary from hysterectomies to heart transplants to lung transplants to head/neck surgeries....absolutely amazing.
I am working in a research lab this semester, so my search for a surgery video online began with the hope that I would find something to prepare me for some surgeries that I will be helping with this weekend. I ended up coming across this website: www.or-live.com
On this website, you can watch the previous webcasts of surgeries, and it also tells you what surgeries will be coming up, so a person can watch it live and ask the doctors questions as they talk through the video. I should clarify. The actual surgery itself is taped, it is just "live" in the sense that the doctors involved are sitting around watching and explainign the video, and they take questions from their audience and also questions submitted online. Quite ingenious, I think, and an amazing learnign tool. Not only for students such as myself, but for the normal person, what we call the "lay person". The explanations are thorough and quite well given, since the doctors involved are the ones who explain. They suggest that persons who watch might not only be students or curious people, but they might be facing a surgery of this nature themselves and want to know about it. Absolutely fascinating.
But then....should we be showing these surgeries online like this? Is it distracting to the surgeons to have a camera there? (I would think not). It is a fabulous learning tool....but does the patient/the patient's family consent to the video recording, and consent to have it shown on the web...? Of course, once you take away the face or other identifying marks, it would, in my opinion, be very very difficult to distinguish an 18 year old man from a 30 year old man if we both had a heart transplant. Right? The chest is covered...all you see is the heart. (in the one I am watching as I write this). Still, it is a question that I'm sure they addressed...or should address...I will have to do research of my own on this. Perhaps ask my professors what the procedures for somethign like this might be.
It's amazing what technology allows us to do now. Absolutely amazing.
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I tried to watch one out of curiosity, but I was too grossed out by it. I could never be a doctor...
:-D It takes a special kind of person. Everyone has their own fascination...I, on the other hand, would fall asleep in business classes, and I have friends who LOVE them.
The heart transplant is my favorite. But, I wouldn't want to be a surgeon, it's too impersonal.
Until later....
~Dreams
I am exactly the same way. I LOVE anything to do with the human body and how it functions and I love doing dissections and seeing pictures of some stuff people hate. I'm a pre med student too by the way. I am definately going to check this website out, it looks awesome!
Oh, it is, you'll be mesmerized. :-D
Until later....
~Dreams
Yeah we all have are likes and dislikes. I have tried to watch those medical show, like where they do surgury and show every part. I just cannot stand to watch it, not in a bad way. To see a persons heart makes mine go faster, as to see how fragile the heart is. I realy do not want to know whats below my skin, but thank goodness there are brave people like you who are out there.
Well, thank you. I will try to live up to that.
Until later....
~Dreams
I about died watching some of those surgeries...Eww...makes me glad I don't want to be a doctor. It was cool to see that doctors have taken the time to compile something like that.
Nicholas Aden
Self-Promotion
i love the human body and anything to do with science. surgery is amazing to watch and i share your enthusiasm. I am continuing into the animal sciences rather than human sciences, but this site was still very intriguing.
Hm...you'd think they would have a similar animal site...but...I bet the PETA and Animal Rights groups would have a hay-day with that...oh well...
Until later....
~Dreams
I used to watch extrem makeover. It was a show about plastic surgery. I Stopped watching it though because it disgusted me to watch doctors mutilate people to look better.
surgery should onlybe to save someones life