The use of freeze frame (slow scan) video for health professional education

Continuing education in the professions is receiving increased emphasis and the economic and effective delivery of programmes must be a priority for the future. Freeze frame video, one of the newer telecommunication technologies, is a promising method for delivering continuing medical education (CME) over distance for those who have difficulty in regularly attending educational update programmes, especially for those in rural and isolated areas. The system uses two telephone lines to transmit both voice and a still picture simultaneously to one or several sites. The video portion can be a view of the patient, text, 35-mm slides, microscopic slides, or any other still object. Five years' experience with a slow-scan system as used for education is outlined. Three types of programme formats were all presented with this technology; consultations; discussion/case presentations; and lectures. The best use of the system was for small groups, with discussion of their unique problems. The fully interactive nature of the slow-scan system assisted in the presentations and allowed all sites in multisite conferences to be fully involved. Because most teachers are not familiar with the technology in their everyday life it requires more orientation and experience to accomplish a skilled programme than with other telecommunication systems such as the telephone or television.