Interplast Cleft Lip and Palate Intructional CD-ROM
KOCHOI WONG MD, Michael Stephanides MD, Leslie Hovey MD, JJ Keyser MD, Geetha Palreddy MD, Stephen Schendel MD DDS, and the surgeons of Interplast
National Biocomputation
Center
Stanford University/NASA
Ames Research Center
Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
900 Welch Road, Suite 15
Palo Alto, CA 94304
Phone: 650-498-6978
Fax: 650-725-1449
Email: kevin@biocomp.stanford.edu
INTRODUCTION__________
Interplast is a group of volunteer surgeons, pediatricians, anesthesiologists and nurses that works in partnership with Third World nations. The teams deliver free reconstructive surgery for children and adults with birth defects, burns and other crippling deformities. Part of Interplasts’ objective is to teach the local physicians on the management of these problems so that eventually the surgical teams can be phased out and the local physicians can take over.
PURPOSE_________________
There is need for instructional material, that is inexpensive, light to carry and provides an effective way of educating physicians in the host countries. A multimedia CD-ROM was developed to address these needs. It provides a very inexpensive medium for delivering the information and it is easy to carry. We have encountered multimedia capable PC’s in most of our sites, in places as remote as Mongolia.
METHODS________________
HTML programming language was used to construct a multimedia project on cleft lip and palate repair procedures and management of these patients. The content for the project was provided by numerous physicians throughout the world. A web site was reviewed and continuously updated by the numerous authors and material was either submitted online or via regular mail. The content is edited for validity and uniformity at our institution. Included in this CD ROM are:
- Text information on patient management and instructions for parents;
- Step by step drawings and photo’s of various procedures;
- Video’s and animations of actual procedures;
- An interactive cleft lip repair training tool is also included which teaches surgeons on how to perform the initial markings for the various repairs.
This project was made multilingual to avoid language barriers.
RESULTS________________
A training and teaching tool was constructed which provides optimal information on the management of cleft lip and palate problems. Various modalities like video’s, slides and drawings are used to enhance and optimize learning. This CD-ROM will be given to physicians in developing countries during the Interplast-trips. From our experience, most facilities in the development countries do have computers with CD-ROM players and are able to utilize such a tool.
The production costs of the CD-ROM by now is less than one dollar. Paper and books remain much more expensive and are usually in English, which most of the times is a problem. Furthermore, all participants on the project are volunteers.