The Saint Barnabas Health Care System (SBHCS) is excited to announce a new partnership with Liberty Science Center and The Sharing Network to produce Live From…Kidney Transplant, a major expansion in “real-time” interactive education. The program, a first of its kind in kidney transplantation, is a live audio and video connection between two functioning operating rooms at Saint Barnabas Medical Center and Liberty Science Center (LSC). As the LSC student audience watches renal transplant surgery in progress, they are able to talk with the members of the operating room team while the operation is in progress!

This program gives visiting high school students an opportunity to learn about the critical importance of organ donation, career opportunities in the health professions, healthy lifestyle choices and scientific breakthroughs.

“The project reflects the commitment of Saint Barnabas and the entire Renal Team to use technology to provide insight into the field of medicine and highlight advances in transplant surgery” says Stuart Geffner, M.D., Director of Transplant Surgery, Saint Barnabas Health Care System. “As a surgeon, I encourage any creative educational techniques that might inspire a future surgeon or other medical professional.”

The Surgical Experience
The Live From…Kidney Transplant program provides a “real-time” observational experience of two transplant surgical procedures: in the first operating room, students observe the surgical team retrieving the kidney from the live donor patient, cleaning and preparing the kidney for transplantation and then transporting the kidney into OR 2 where the kidney is implanted into the patient recipient. Both procedures are performed laparoscopically,
through the use of a slender optical instrument that is inserted through the abdominal wall to visualize the interior.

How it Works
In each of the two operating rooms, there is one wall-mounted camera, plus medical equipment cameras, a wireless microphone attached to the surgeon, several medical monitors and a remote monitor for viewing the Liberty Science Center student audience. The room cameras are controlled by an SBHCS employee for the purpose of broadcasting the surgical procedure. The Liberty Science Center classroom is equipped with two 35” video screens to receive the feed from the hospital, along with a microphone and camera.

In the Liberty Science amphitheater, an LSC educator acts as facilitator for Live From… Kidney Transplant. The educator coordinates the interactive process with a surgical nurse in the operating rooms who keeps the students informed of the progress during each surgery and assists in fielding questions to the surgical staff. In addition to viewing the surgeries, students have access to the surgical instruments used during the operating and clinical models of the kidney.

This program is made possible through generous support from BD and Roche.

Liberty Science Center is located in Liberty State Park, Jersey City, near the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. For more information, call 201- 200-1000 or visit www.lsc.org.