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Commentary: Surgical Telementoring as a Means to Disseminate Vascular Expertise Around the World

In the December 2017 issue of the JEVT, Porretta and colleagues report on the long-term outcomes of a telementoring program that aimed to incorporate endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) into clinical practice in a remote hospital. Specifically, 49 patients were subjected to EVAR for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) over a 4-year period, supported by an experienced surgeon located at the University Hospital of Lausanne. Another 86 patients were treated independently thereafter by the local team. The authors concluded that a telementoring program in this setting is a safe strategy to achieve skill assimilation and service delivery at a remote site. The etymology of the term telementoring goes back to the ancient Greek language. The term consists of “tele,” which means “far, remote, operating over distance,” and “mentor,” which means “adviser” or “counselor.” Interestingly, the word has its etymological origin in Greek mythology (Mentor was a close friend of Odysseus, who placed his son, Telemachus, in Mentor’s care while Odysseus was fighting the Trojan War). Surgical telementoring is a concept within telemedicine that applies information technology to provide real-time guidance and technical assistance for surgical procedures from an expert physician at a different geographical location. The report from Porretta et al is notably important because