The University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore plans to perform its first webcast surgery in February. A “small but increasing number of hospitals” use the real-time broadcasts from operating rooms to attract new patients and physician referrals, Health-IT World reports.

Webcasts teach patients and doctors around the world about surgical innovations, said David Brond, vice president of marketing and planning at UMMC. Webcast audience numbers usually run from the hundreds to the low thousands, and are usually about 60% medical professionals and 40% potential patients, said Ross Joel, a co-founder of medical broadcasting company slp3D.

Joel said that more than 100 live hospital events are expected to be webcast this year, more than double what the company broadcast two years ago. Many of the webcasts resemble television documentaries, with mulitple cameras, close-ups and expert commentary, Health-IT World reports.

Hospitals pay slp3D between $35,000 and $40,000 to produce, distribute, promote and archive a live webcast, which runs 60 minutes. Joel said hospitals usually attract enough new business for the new procedures to more than cover the webcast costs.

Some hospitals without high-speed Internet connections may not be able to support webcasts, said Tim Steffl, vice president of strategic alliance for American Hospital Association subsidiary AHA Financial Solutions. AHA has announced a deal in which slp3D will offer AHA members at least a 10% discount on webcasting fees, Steffl said (Fisher, Health-IT World, 1/22).

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