For the first time ever, McGill University's Department of Anesthesia in Canada took telemedicine to a new frontier with the advent of "teleanesthesia." A team of engineers, researchers and anesthesiolo-gists controlled the supply of blood to a patient in Pisa, Italy, via an automated system that showed real-time ventilation parameters, vital signs and live images of the surgery. The whole system is teleoperated through a remote computer station, and both ends of the system communicate through an audio-video link workstation."The practice has obvious applications in countries with a significant number of people living in remote areas, like Canada, where specialists may not be available on site," said Dr. Thomas Hemmerling, head of the McGill-based telemedicine team.
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