NEW PRESS RELEASES

1998 Press Releases

1997 Press Releases

News and Events Home Page

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CORNELL'S WEILL MEDICAL COLLEGE PIONEERS GRAND ROUNDS ON THE INTERNET

New York, NY (October 19, 1998) -- Cornell University is using a new distance-learning technology and the Internet to help doctors keep up with the latest developments in their field without leaving their home or office.

In the past, doctors at hospitals affiliated with the Weill Medical College of Cornell University had to travel to the college's Upper East Side lecture halls to attend "Grand Rounds" presentations by specialists who provide important updates on research and clinical care.

Now all they need to do is turn on their computers. With the assistance of Cornell University's Office of Distance Learning, the Medical College provides Grand Rounds lectures, graphics, and photographic material on demand, using video-streaming technologies that deliver each presentation directly to a doctor's desktop computer. The Grand Rounds lecture can even be viewed from a laptop in a hotel room, using standard phone lines and a modem.

Dr. Antonio Gotto, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of the Medical College, says this new development allows more doctors to participate in Grand Rounds than would otherwise be able to do so. "The demands on a physician's time are such that there are almost always conflicting priorities," Gotto said. "Now it is no longer necessary to choose between continuing medical education and patient care. Doctors in our Network can tend to their patients and attend Grand Rounds at their convenience."

Dr. George T. Martin, Chairman of the Department of Medicine at The New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens, added, "There can be real frustration among physicians in private practice because they are unable to take time from their office hours and patient commitments to attend important medical conferences. This new technology is a perfect opportunity for them to have access to blockbuster Grand Rounds presentations on the weekends or in the evenings."

The video-streaming technology, called "NetShow," is used to compress the videotaped lectures and synchronize the video with slides and other presentation material, all of which is stored on a server. The presentation can be viewed on the Internet using free software that is downloaded from the Medical College's web page.

"When the doctors watch Grand Rounds on the Internet, they see everything that their colleagues in the audience saw at the time of the presentation, exactly the way they saw it," according to Dr. David B. Lipsky, Director of Cornell's Office of Distance Learning. "There are two windows on the computer screen: One shows the video of the presenter, while the other displays the graphical images that the doctor had projected during the presentation. The images on the computer screen change at the precise moment the presenter changed them during the talk," Lipsky explained.

Dr. Daniel Alonso, Senior Associate Dean of the Medical College, said that the video- streaming presentations give participating physicians some other advantages as well. "For one thing, it is impractical to stop or replay an image during a live presentation. Now our doctors can replay a Grand Rounds, review a particular slide or section, and even retrieve the archived presentation months later," Alonso said.

Cornell University is expanding its use of video and Internet technologies in each of its colleges, and the Medical College is already using two-way video teleconferencing to link students on Cornell's Ithaca campus in upstate New York with others in New York City in a single "virtual" classroom. There are plans to use the same technology to allow third-year medical students to attend class from the hospitals where they are on rotation through the various specialties, rather than commute back and forth to the Medical College.

"The objective with distance learning at Cornell University is always to provide an enhanced educational experience while overcoming the traditional boundaries of time and space," according to Jonathon D. Levy, Cornell's Executive Director of Distance Learning. "In this case, we were able to team up with Microsoft's engineers to provide a unique and high-quality solution that is already being replicated elsewhere on campus. The key here was the ability to provide high-quality photographic images in synchrony with the video stream, allowing distant doctors to view the entire presentation at their convenience without sacrificing quality and without having to purchase costly video-conferencing technology," Levy said.

Cornell partnered with Microsoft during the company's Beta testing period for NetShow to develop the video streaming solution for Grand Rounds. The project was coordinated by Amelia Ellsworth of Cornell University's Distance Learning Office and Alex Pereira at the Medical College.

A demonstration of the program may be viewed at the Office of Distance Learning's Web page: http://www.dl.cornell.edu by clicking on the "courses" link.