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TGH joins ranks of hospitals operating on Internet

Tampa General Hospital begins today with a minimally invasive parathyroid surgery.

By LISA GREENE
Published June 14, 2005

At 4 p.m. today, Dr. Jim Norman will lift his scalpel and prepare to cut a grape-sized lump out of a woman's neck, as he does several times every day.

This time, people around the world can watch.

Norman's surgery will be broadcast live on the Internet, a first for Tampa General Hospital.

Tampa General joins an increasing number of hospitals showing surgeries on the Web.

St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa Webcast its first surgery last fall. It Webcast a second in February, and plans more.

Hospitals from Massachusetts General to the Cleveland Clinic are getting in on the act. The number of surgeries Webcast by slp3D, the company that will show Tampa General's surgery, has soared the past several years, said Ross Joel, executive vice president of sales and marketing for slp3D Inc. of Connecticut.

In 1998, when slp3D first started focusing on Internet surgeries, the company showed about 20, Joel said. This year, the number is close to 200.

For Norman, the surgery is an opportunity to spread knowledge. He specializes in a minimally invasive surgery to remove an enlarged parathyroid gland. The operation takes about 15 minutes, and patients leave an hour later.

"You leave with a Band-Aid on your neck," Norman said.

But the problem often isn't diagnosed because an enlarged gland can cause a laundry list of seemingly unrelated symptoms, from depression to kidney stones to osteoporosis. When the problem gland is found, Norman said, many doctors don't know that minimally invasive surgery is available.

"This is to help get out the word that this is a disease that's underdiagnosed," Norman said. "I get patients who come to me from all over the U.S. who have been living with it for years, because their doctors say it's dangerous to get it fixed."

Tampa General plans to record more surgeries later this year of different procedures. St. Joseph's has Webcast a type of surgery that uses a tool, the MicroMaze, to stop the irregular heart rhythms of atrial fibrillation.

Most of the audience are potential patients. A typical surgery gets about 4,300 people who view the page and 700 who go on to view the surgery live, Joel said. About 1,100 watch the free archived version in the first month.

But what if something goes wrong - live?

"If we have a little problem with bleeding or something, the whole world can see it," Norman said. "But on the other hand, this is an operation I do six to eight times a day. ... We're confident it will go well, because it goes well all day, every day."

To watch Tampa General's surgery, go to or-live.com or the hospital's Web site, www.tgh.org

St. Joseph's surgeries are archived free at www.virtual-or.com

[Last modified June 14, 2005, 01:24:19]