Utah Heart Clinic at LDS Hospital and Intermountain Healthcare Selects Netbriefings to Webcast Live Case Study

ST. PAUL, MN -- Netbriefings, a full-service webcast technology provider that specializes in secure and large-audience Internet broadcasts, will provide webcasting technology for the first-ever live Internet broadcast of a laser ablation for atrial fibrillation.

Cardiologist John Day, M.D., from the Utah Heart Clinic at LDS Hospital, will perform the live atrial fibrillation ablation at 6 p.m. MDT on Monday, March 19, at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, the flagship medical center for the Intermountain Healthcare system.

Doug Packer, M.D. from the Mayo Clinic will moderate the activity. The case presentation will be made by Jeffrey Anderson, M.D., associate chief of cardiology at LDS Hospital, and Brian Crandall, M.D., from the Utah Heart Clinic at LDS Hospital.

Event organizers expect approximately 500 physicians and clinicians to watch the operation webcast from around the world. Funding for the event was provided through an education grant provided by St. Jude Medical.

Atrial fibrillation ablation procedures are very complex and difficult procedures to perform and are only done at a limited number of hospitals around the world. As people are living longer, atrial fibrillation is becoming a growing epidemic in the United States. The condition is characterized by an irregular and rapid pulse that often causes fatigue and shortness of breath. It can lead to strokes, heart failure and even death. One in four adults will develop atrial fibrillation over the course of their lives, and atrial fibrillation is responsible for 25 percent of all the strokes in the United States.


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Unfortunately, many medications used to treat atrial fibrillation often do not work and may have many dangerous side effects. Traditionally, cardiac surgery was the only option to treat atrial fibrillation when medications did not work or patients had significant side effects from the medications. Recently, a new procedure, catheter ablation, has emerged as a minimally invasive potential cure for atrial fibrillation.

With atrial fibrillation ablation procedures, there are no incisions or sutures. Patients generally spend one night in the hospital following the procedure and go home the next day with just two Band-Aids. In this procedure, catheters are inserted into the heart. The source of the atrial fibrillation is mapped using 3-D imaging technology and the areas of the heart causing the atrial fibrillation are cauterized.

“By webcasting this operation, we’re doing something that wasn’t possible just a few years ago: sharing this information with physicians around the world, giving them a front row seat in the cath lab,” Dr. Day said. “Netbriefings gives us a complete solution, so there’s no technology to worry about on the big day.”

Netbriefings worked on a similar project for St. Jude Medical late last year, webcasting a live case transmission on mapping and ablation of atrial fibrillation and atrial tachycardia from New York University in October. About 130 surgeons watched the webcast live from 23 countries and an additional 190 people watched the recorded archives, which are available at http://event.netbriefings.com/event/isjm/Archives/nyupadua/.

About Netbriefings

Netbriefings provides catered, professional-quality webcast services with robust audio/video streaming designed specifically for large audiences. Netbriefings solutions provide cost-effective alternatives to traditional corporate communication methods, allowing its clients to conduct successful broadcast-style streaming-media webcasts with ease. Netbriefings also offers secure broadcasting, on-demand access of archived content, and repurposing of content into CDs, DVDs, podcasts and other formats. (www.netbriefings.com)