History of Webcasts
In April 2002 Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center produced the world's first live Internet broadcast of the surgical implantation of a deep brain stimulator, a device used to treat symptoms of Parkinson's disease. The surgery – and the webcast – were successes, greatly reducing the patient’s tremors – and bringing information about this critically important treatment to more than 1,000 viewers, including many medical professionals across the country. The Medical Center has now produced fourteen surgical webcasts, including heart surgery of a 1-year-old boy, a voice box reconstruction, a gamma knife treatment of a brain tumor and image-guided sinus surgery. More webcasts are planned for coming months. Each webcast is available for viewing by the general public and by medical professionals.