MISCON 2020 – First Ever Multicenter Live Surgery Workshop

Even as the pandemic has brought to a halt medical education programmes and surgical training workshops all across the globe, a team of doctors in Kochi organized a conference complete with orations, live surgeries and convocations using an e-platform.

The conference was organized by the Department of General & Laparoscopic Surgery, VPS Lakeshore Hospital, Kochi, and Verwandeln Institute Kochi in association with Society of Endoscopic and Laparoscopic Surgeons of India (SELSI), Keyhole Clinic Kochi, Indian Hernia Society (IHS) and Association of Surgeons of India Kerala Chapter.

The preparations for the minimally invasive surgery conference (MISCON), a global event organized annually held in the city, were done and delegates had started registering when the lockdown kicked in.

“Our team decided to conduct the conference as scheduled (July 17-19) on an e-platform. So far, only lectures or live surgeries were streamed, that too just for a few hours,” said Dr. R. Padmakumar, head, General and Laparoscopic Surgery, VPS Lakeshore Hospital, Kochi. All the programmes were charted out with a buffer strategy (to deal with last minute unexpected eventualities like anyone in the team turning COVID positive, the area becoming containment zone or imposition of lock down etc, as COVID threat was a concern, even on the day of the event, he said.

In all, 35 videos (both National and International) were streamed during the event. Three orations, 14 live surgeries, virtual trade exhibitions, e-inaugurations and e-convocations for FLHS were held.

“Through the live surgery telecast from the single center has happened before in shorter durations, the multi-center event will be a rarity. Unlike the online lecture sessions, the process demanded a detailed strategy without much prior reference. The entire event was held by strictly adhering to the Covid protocols”, said Dr. R. Padmakumar, organizing chairman of the event.