Now Streaming: How To Do a Kidney Transplant (vice.com)

tedlistens writes: In January, hundreds of students enrolled in the University of Leiden Medical School's 'Clinical Kidney Transplantation.' But they weren't there: the class is completely virtual, the world's first massively open online course to offer instruction in the surgical procedure. Taught by 13 doctors through videos and interactive modules...the free course isn't intended to replace real-life education with hospital patients. Nor is it likely to prepare students to conduct a kidney transplant anytime soon. (For a fee, students can receive a certificate of completion.) But it's part of a new digital push among medical schools around the world, including Harvard and Stanford, that are seeking to educate a generation of students raised on smartphones and to expand their audiences to virtually anyone with a computer and an internet connection.

Comments

Education for the masses

[inode_buddha]

This is cool, I used to dream of widespread education back in the day. And now people are finding ways to do it, cheaply and en masse. This will be better for everyone eventually.

Re:Education for the masses

[fustakrakich]

Yeah, just what we need, a bunch of amateur surgeon junkies out there in Central Park stealing kidneys for a fix. This is like a course in making bombs.

A Living Donor's viewpoint

[linuxgurugamer]

Last June I donated one of my kidneys to someone I didn't know. It saved his life.

Currently, there are over 93,000 people on the kidney transplant waiting list. The wait for a deceased donor could be 5 years, and in some states, it is closer to 10 years. Patients are prioritized by how long they’ve been on the waiting list, their blood type, immune system activity and other factors. 80% of the people on the waiting list are on kidney dialysis. The longer a person is on dialysis and has to wait for a transplant, the short and long term success rates are negatively affected. On average, receiving a kidney transplant can double someone’s life expectancy.

  Each day, 18 Americans die waiting for an organ transplant.

Please consider donating your kidneys after death, it can save lives. Better yet, consider doing a living donation such as what I did. All medical costs are covered by the recipient's insurance company. The results after a living donation are much better than after a post-mortum donation.

While the risks are not zero, they are about the lowest you can expect for any major surgery you can undergo as a donor

Re:A Living Donor's viewpoint

[linuxgurugamer]

Fully recovered, no restrictions on anything. I was out of work for 4 weeks, and took a few more weeks to fully recover.

Interesting sidenote: I went in for a post-donation checkup, and my doctor felt a very small lump in my throat. it was checked out, and turned out to be a very early thyroid cancer. I had surgery on 2/29 to remove my thyroid, and have fully recovered from that. The tumor was extremely small, would not have been found except for the kidney donation. I have to be on thyroid medication for life, but I can live with that.

So, looking at it, I can say that donating a kidney saved two lives: the recipient and my own.

Missing information.

[fahrbot-bot]

(a) Which motels are best for this type of surgery?
(b) How much ice does a typical motel bathtub hold?

I'm asking for a friend.