Contemporary surgical training faces well discussed challenges, including the European Working Time Directive,Reference Leahy1 conflicts between training and National Health Service provision, and patient expectations of consultant-delivered care. However, recent technological advances provide a wealth of resources to counterbalance such adverse trends.Reference Leahy1 Virtual reality simulators, e-learning, digital photography and video recording provide the trainee with opportunities to augment their traditional surgical learning.
YouTube (Google Inc, Mountain View, California, USA) was launched in June 2005 and is an internet-based repository of user-generated content.Reference Clifton and Mann2 More recently, in addition to home videos and television clips, significant educational material has been posted online, including videos from prestigious academic institutions such as Cambridge and Stanford Universities. Of particular interest to the otolaryngology trainee is content showing practical demonstrations of physical examinations (e.g. Dix–Hallpike testing) and operations (e.g. neck dissection).
Additionally, there are resources of value to the otolaryngology patient. These patient-directed resources can reinforce patient advice leaflets, and are particularly helpful in demonstrating physical manoeuvres, such as Brandt–Daroff exercises and nasal drop administration. Such video material has a clear advantage over written descriptions and/or line drawings, as the clips actually show the procedure being performed.
YouTube content can be searched in the same way as general World Wide Web material, using a web-browser, and video clips of interest can be indexed to the user's favourites list or playlists, allowing the user to review selected materials easily. Channels can be subscribed to, thereby alerting the user to new content as it is posted. Table I highlights some categorised channels which the authors have found useful, and serves as a good starting point for further examination of YouTube ENT resources. As with PubMed literature searches, similar content is suggested based on search key words, and is displayed alongside the primary search results. YouTube account holders can easily upload their own videos, edit the files within the YouTube program, and then display the materials on their own channel.
Table I Youtube resources for otolaryngology trainees: examples
*Enter channel name into search field to access content.
Further innovations include collections of surgical videos as online textbooks, such as the ENT Masterclass® Cyber Text Book3 and The Otolaryngology Surgical Video Atlas Channel.4 These represent a great advance in surgical technique instruction, compared with line drawings and sequential photography.
As with all online material, when recommending potentially uncensored and unregulated material to patients and trainees, care must be taken that the content is medically valid and that vested commercial interests are clearly acknowledged.Reference Hayanga and Kaiser5 Inappropriate content can be ‘flagged’ by viewers and ultimately blocked by YouTube administrators.
