Ustream: New Perspective on Viewing a Medical Procedure

Until recently, when you looked for information on a particular operation or procedure, you had to rely solely on text, photos and illustrations in books, newsletters and encyclopedias. Then, thanks to the Internet and the use of webcams and video, procedures could be recorded and easily uploaded it to a website or social network such as YouTube.

Until recently, when you looked for information on a particular operation or procedure, you had to rely solely on text, photos and illustrations in books, newsletters and encyclopedias. Then, thanks to the Internet and the use of webcams and video, procedures could be recorded and easily uploaded it to a website or social network such as YouTube.

Now, with the help of a broadband connection, you can live stream an actual procedure right in real time and watch everything that’s going on – good and bad – with no editing. On Ustream, anyone with a camera and Internet connection can quickly and easily broadcast to a global audience.

This type of website has enormous potential for both doctors and hospitals and patients, too. For a doctor or hospital, it’s a new method to engage with a potentially new audience and further build the hospital’s brand to a bigger audience. For a patient who is pondering whether to get a procedure, a live streaming, unedited video may help them make a decision about moving forward. Many people are visual and need to see something to believe its outcome. Ustream reinforces that.

Ustream can also let viewers submit questions and comments via chat and allow a physician to answer them while narrating and performing the operation.

Live streaming online is just another way technology is changing how healthcare is being promoted and marketed.