Reality Surgery, a Dublin-based company that produces DVDs of surgical procedures for training purposes, is to provide its library of recordings at cost to developing world countries under a joint initiative with medical publishers Elsevier.
The company is now looking for a third partner to sponsor the provision of DVD players or laptops to developing world surgeons interested in subscribing to the service.
Reality Surgery has so far produced six DVDs featuring 12 operations being performed by the world's leading surgeons so that training and practising surgeons can examine and mimic their techniques.
A set of six DVDs, which costs €600,000 to produce, is normally priced at €380.
Elsevier is supplying the company with free advertisements to promote the DVDS to the surgeons, who must have been working in a developing country for 12 months to qualify for the offer.
There are 20,000 surgeons working pro bono in developing countries and Reality Surgery hopes to reach about 2,000 of them, according to its executive chairman, Chris Goodey.
"Many of the techniques captured on the DVDs are able to reduce the time needed to conduct operations, which is critical for under-resourced surgeries in developing countries," he said.
Mr Goodey, who is managing director of Medicine Weekly publisher Eireann Publications, said Reality Surgery was also in talks with pharmaceutical companies in order to secure a subsidy toward posting and package.
He described the developing world initiative as the "philanthropic side" of the company.
The "business side" involves expansion into the Middle East and China, where the company has recently signed a deal with the Chinese Medical Association in a three-way venture with Chinese surgical equipment distributor MDA.
The Chinese Medical Association expects to add 2,000 surgeons a month to its subscription base. "Over 25 per cent of the world's surgeons are in China, so it's huge," Mr Goodey said.
About €1.6 million has been invested in Reality Surgery since it was established in 2002 and it is currently the only provider of live surgery DVDs.
"Previously there was video footage, but it was very poor quality. You couldn't really see what was going on," Mr Goodey said.
As DVD technology allows for multiangle viewing, slow motion playback, high-quality freeze-frames and instant access indexing, it is ideal for supplementing surgical training, he added.
The company, estimated to be worth about €10 million, was formed as a result of a joint venture between Mr Goodey and Professor Tom Walsh, a surgeon based at James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown, who between them own 60 per cent of the company.
Mr Paddy Kelly has a 26 per cent stake and the balance is held by private investors, Enterprise Ireland and the Royal College of Surgeons.
The company hopes to break even by the end of 2005 and expects to more than double its current subscriber base of 700 to 1,500 by the end of April as a result of interest from GPs in a set of DVDs currently being produced featuring minor surgery.
