Telementoring for breast surgeons practicing in remote areas

Fatima Mubarik, Hania Shahzad, Syeda Sakina Abidi, Sana Zeeshan, Lubna Vohra, Sadaf Khan, Abida Khalil Sattar

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Telementorship allows an expert surgeon to mentor another surgeon through an advanced procedure from a remote location via 2-way audio-visual communication. The current article was planned to review the existing literature and evaluate the utility of telementorship regarding educating rural surgeons in Pakistan about multidisciplinary breast cancer care. Publications from 2016 to 2020 were searched on PubMed and GoogleScholar and 10 most recent publications were selected. Review of literature revealed that even though telementorship in this context might be comparable to onsite mentorship, multiple concerns need to be addressed before its implementation. These include lack of concrete evidence regarding its effectiveness, legal, security and financial issues. Thus, a pilot project evaluating the efficacy of telementorship needs to be conducted for rural breast surgeons working in Pakistan. If these studies show promise and an affordable, convenient and effective method of telementorship is devised, then it may become the future of breast surgery training in far-flung regions of Pakistan.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)S120-S123
JournalJournal of the Pakistan Medical Association
Volume71
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2021

Keywords

  • Breast cancer
  • Rural surgery
  • Surgery training
  • Telementoring

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