Live demonstration of surgery across international borders with uncompressed high-definition quality

To provide more efficient medical education and clinical training opportunities, we report our first successful experience of uncompressed high-definition (HD) transmission of live surgery from Korea to Japan. Laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy was performed in Korea and broadcast to Fukuoka, Japan, at the venue of the First Biennial Congress of the Asian-Pacific Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (APHPBA) via super-fast broadband Internet on an academic fiber-optic network. The streaming of uncompressed HD images of live surgery was successfully performed with an interactive discussion between the two stations. The network remained stable throughout the session at as large a bandwidth as 1.6 Gbps. With respect to HD image quality, 92% of respondents reported that it was 'very good'. Use of this extraordinary high-quality image transmission will usher in a new era by providing much more accurate remote diagnosis and much better tele-education, not only in the field of hepato-pancreato-biliary surgery but also in many other fields of medicine.