Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

Not long ago at Philadelphia's famed Willis Eye Hospital, a specialist performed an intricate operation involving the planting of a plastic lens in the eye of a patient. In the narrow confines of the operating room, only one man at a time could have watched from nearby. But television gave a close-up view to some 300 ophthalmologists. "Only through the eye of the camera," says the Journal of the American Medical Association, "can hundreds of persons be brought to within a few feet or inches of interesting visual material." Early Medical TV Experiments RCA's interest in medical television goes back to February, 1947, when it televised a "blue baby" opera- tion at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Hospital for more than 300 surgeons, internes and nurses in various view- ing rooms in the hospital. Later the same year, RCA sent the first televised pictures of surgery through the air from the operating room of a New York hospital to receivers set up in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel for a meeting of the American College of Surgeons. Since those experiments, RCA specialists have put on more than fifty medical television demonstrations throughout the United States and in Latin America and Europe. RCA Victor color television cameras at the famed Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D. C. Besides, RCA equipment — including a fully outfitted mobile television studio — has been used extensively by the pharmaceutical firm of Smith, Kline & French in its own surgical and clinical demonstrations before medical gatherings. Advantages of Color The early demonstrations were in black-and-white television, but in 1955, RCA introduced a compatible color TV system for medical use. Doctors agreed that the addition of color to medical television lent realism and authenticity to human tissue and areas of infection, and gave a sense of three-dimensional presentation valuable in revealing the extent and depth of lesions and incisions. On January 19, 1955, color television of govern- mental-approved standards was used for the first time as a means of inter-city consultation and diagnosis. In the hush of a Philadelphia hospital, a patient lay on the operating table. The surgeon had made his incision and was awaiting a confirmation of the diagnosis by consulting specialists. Even though the consultants were more than a hundred miles away, the surgeon got his confirmation almost instantly — through the use of color television. RCA cameras focused first on the patient, then on a magnified piece of tissue that had just been removed. More than 150 doctors examined the specimen on large- size color television receivers in Baltimore and Washing- ton. A pathologist in Baltimore spoke up and his re- marks were carried to doctors in the other two cities over the closed-circuit system. The diagnosis was dis- cussed and confirmed, and the operation completed. "It was like bringing 150 specialists right into the operating room," said one doctor. Color System at Walter Reed The most extensive color television system ever de- signed for hospital use is the one for the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The system includes three separate and complete color broadcasting studios and thirty large-screen monitors. It will be used for medical instruction, research and consultation. With this color TV system, it is possible for an operation at Walter Reed to be viewed by a specialist two blocks away at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, central laboratory for the Army, Navy and Air Force. If the removed tissue requires pathological examination, it can be sent by pneumatic tube to the laboratory. Then, while the surgeon watches on his TV monitor, the pathologist can prepare the specimen for slide projection and hold a two-way picture and voice consultation with the surgeon. January 1957 15