Sydney, AUSTRALIA – 8 August 2008 – AARNet, Australia’s National Research Education Network (NREN) has facilitated the participation of surgeons from Royal Brisbane Hospital and Concord Repatriation Hospital in Sydney to a live tele-surgery demonstration from Kyoto University in Japan being held in conjunction with the Asian Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) conference in Queenstown, New Zealand.

On 7th August 2008, conference delegates witnessed Dr. Sakai from Kyoto University Hospital, Japan perform colo-rectal laparoscopic surgery whilst interacting with peers in New Zealand, Philippines and Japan together with Australian surgeons from Concord Repatriation General Hospital and Royal Brisbane Hospital. In Australia the participants included Professor Russell Stitz and Dr Andrew Stevenson from Royal Brisbane Hospital and Professor Bokey from Concord Repatriation Hospital.

This event was made possible through a collaborative effort between AARNet, KAREN (Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network) and peer research networks in Japan and the Philippines.

The two sites participating from Australia were interacting in real time using DVTS, a system for the real time transmission of high resolution and low latency video and audio across the Internet. Using DVTS, 60 Mbit/s was both transmitted and received for the duration between Australia and Japan across TEIN2 (Trans Eurasian Information Network) and Southern Cross Cable Network..

Chris Hancock, CEO of AARNet said, “Allowing a trainee to see what an expert surgeon is doing during an operation and ask questions will help promote learning and development. The use of high-definition cameras and high capacity networks like AARNet and KAREN means that the ‘watching and asking’ can be done from almost anywhere when there are good network connections to the site of the live surgery.”

“AARNet’s participation in APAN26 highlights the possibilities and benefits a high speed network can bring towards furthering research and education between Australia, Asia and New Zealand. The ability to bring geographically diverse researchers together through a high-speed network is a significant enabler for learning and teaching in advanced medical sciences.”

Professor Russell Stitz of Royal Brisbane Hospital said of the surgical demonstration, “It is a great opportunity for teaching and I think it’s an underutilised mechanism for training people in anatomy and training people in technical surgery.”

In September 2007, AARNet facilitated a live, two-way digital connection between Korea University Hospital in Seoul, Korea and seven other hospitals in Australia, China, Japan, Singapore, Philippines, India and France. The participation by Concord Hospital in Sydney allowed leading Australian Surgeons to collaborate in a shared surgical event, hosted at the 24th APAN (Asia Pacific Advanced Network) Meeting in Xi'an China.

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For further information, please contact:

Tara Schwarze

Max Australia

+61 2 9954 3492

tara.schwarze@maxaustralia.com.au

About AARNet

AARNet Pty Ltd (APL) is the company that operates Australia's Academic and Research Network (AARNet). It is a not-for-profit company limited by shares. The shareholders are 37 Australian universities and the CSIRO. AARNet provides high-capacity leading edge Internet services for the tertiary education and research sector communities and their research partners. AARNet serves more than one million end users who access the network through local area networks at member institutions. For further information, please visit: www.aarnet.edu.au.