Telesurgery. Acceptability of compressed video for remote surgical proctoring

Abstract

Objective: To determine the clinical acceptability of various levels of video compression for remote proctoring of laparoscopic surgical procedures.

Design: Observational, controlled study.

Setting: Community-based teaching hospital.

Participants: Physician and nurse observers.

Interventions: Controlled surgical video scenes were subjected to various levels of data compression for digital transmission and display and shown to participant observers.

Main outcome measures: Clinical acceptability of video scenes after application of video compression.

Results: Clinically acceptable video compression was achieved with a 1.25-megabit/second data rate, with the use of odd-screen 43.3:1 Joint Photographic Expert Group compression and a small screen for remote viewing.

Conclusion: With proper video compression, remote proctoring of laparoscopic procedures may be performed with standard 1.5-megabit/second telecommunication data lines and services.