Successes and failures with grand rounds via videoconferencing at the Royal Children's Hospital in Brisbane

Abstract

Grand rounds at the Royal Children's Hospital in Brisbane began to be conducted by videoconference in 1997. They were held each week and started at 07:45. A total of 44 multisite videoconferences were held in the year 2000, to an average of 10 sites in Queensland. The remote audience for each conference was about 60 people. The local audience at the Royal Children's Hospital comprised 20–40 people. Many other centres made requests to join the grand rounds, but expansion was not possible because of technical limitations. The lessons learned during four years of close partnership with provincial centres mirror Hippocrates: ‘The need is great, the scope wide, growth inexorable and timing difficult’. Everyone basically wants to do a good job, and most errors can be overcome by good design and dedicated technical support.