Anaesthesia TV: Beginning of a New Revolution!

How about attending an online live streaming conference happening at Hawaii from the comforts of your home, doesn’t that sound exciting? Well, honestly speaking we cannot deny the invasion of technology into our day-to-day lives. The amalgamation of the technology into social media disseminating vital information is very evident. On 27th April our sister concern, Anaesthesia TV performed live streaming of the regional anaesthesia conference called PRAC 2018 (Pune Regional Anaesthesia Conference). This was the first time in the history of anaesthesia conferences in India, where it was streamed online and received a magnanimous response with over 7430 viewers across the globe over the period of two days. Viewers were from more than 30 countries namely India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, USA, UK, Brazil Egypt, Iran, Iraq, UAE, Muscat, Australia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Somalia, Bhutan, China Syria, Maldives Sudan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Russia. Thus, giving it a global outreach in a true sense. It was an excellent opportunity for the digital generation for broader content dissemination even to the remotest areas. We received excellent feedback from all the viewers regarding very good quality audiovisual transmission. Viewers also enjoyed re-running of the sessions they missed out or were interested over and over again. Anaesthesia TV relies on the concept of academic philanthropy and technology. It provides a unique concept of retaining the presentations on the website creating a record for posterity for both the speakers as well as the conference organizers. It is a joint effort undertaken by Dr Ashok Shyam who has founded Ortho TV and myself. The conference details will be available for posterity for a long time. Currently details of conferences and organisers are lost once the conference website goes offline [which happens in a year]. By putting conference details on Anaesthesia TV, the details will be available online on our website and the entire program can be put up in pdf format. Anaesthesia TV will also post the details of the conference and links to program and conference websites on our portals [Anaesthesia TV, Facebook, Twitter, etc]. This will help popularize the conference and get more delegates for the event. Information about the conference can be put up on our website much before the conference. All videos will be organized on Anaesthesia TV under the banner of the conference and this itself will work as a marketing tool for the society and conference which will help in adding to the reputation of the society. The primary aim of every speaker is to showcase their work and share their knowledge with peers. Anaesthesia TV will provide an open access forum where this knowledge can be showcased in front of the world and give a chance of worldwide recognition for the speaker. Since the portal is a global platform it will also invite comments and suggestions from peers across the globe and also develop new connections and networks. Every video will be in a journal article format with proper scientific citation. Anyone who wishes to refer to the video can use that citation in their paper publication or presentation. This will be indexed primarily with Google scholar and possibly with other indexing bodies and will definitely add to citation list and H index of every speaker author. It will let the speaker earn academic credits for a conference presentation similar to a paper. This will be a great benefit in building ones academic credentials. One of the major benefits is the record that will exist for posterity in the author’s name. Even after years, people can listen to your talk and benefit from it. One of the many advantages of online conference is its cost-effectiveness for the audience. It saves the extraneous cost of travel, accommodation and food expenses. The authors however do not encourage this every time as it loses the chance for face to face networking with other professionals. One would also lose out on other social opportunities to interact and put the questions to the speakers themselves. But nevertheless it is very convenient and accessible and you could attend education sessions right from the comforts of your home. In case you were keen on attending in hall A which clashes with the session of interest in hall B you can catch up later through the recordings. On the lighter note there is no need to stress about the wardrobe. A few tips to make most of the online conferences 1. Put in on the calendar 2. Make attendance a priority- avoid distractions at home, work 3. Engage in the live or social events which can impact discussions 4. Buy full access whenever possible. As long as you have Internet connection and a smart phone, tablet or a computer use them wisely and you can garner much of the same value from the experience. Make the most of it! If you have tried one and loved it tell more people about it! Spread the word and more online opportunities will arise. It’s time for us to go social! Visit us at www.anaesthesiatv.com