The surgery was fairly routine, save for one notable absence: the physician in charge wasn't in the operating room during the procedure. In fact, he wasn't even on the island.
Dr. Benjamin Berg supervised the entire surgery while in front of a computer screen 3,500 miles away at Tripler Army Medical Centre in Honolulu. He dictated the procedure to the less-experienced colleague who performed the operation, monitoring every move with a high-resolution video camera while getting instant sensor data from the catheter itself.
"The real-time information requires a continuous broadband connection," Berg said. "The delay in the transmission of data about pressure inside the heart would be unacceptable."
The delicate process illustrates why high-speed Internet access -- once considered a luxury -- is viewed increasingly as a necessity. Broadband is being used in projects that could revolutionise such critical areas as education, health care and public safety while creating enormous opportunities in business and entertainment.
Realising that potential, however, has been a perennially elusive goal. To date, Internet development has been marked by extremes: although the nation has a glut of "backbone" bandwidth that can move data from coast to coast in an instant, these high-speed networks slow to a relative crawl at the infamous juncture known within the industry as "the last mile" -- the local connections that link ordinary homes and businesses to the Internet.
The transportation metaphor is apt, as policymakers are recognising that fast Internet connections are as essential to the future of the economy now as railroads and highways were in the last two centuries. Those systems transformed the way people lived and worked, irrevocably changing human conceptions of distance, speed and time. Even in its relative infancy, broadband is already having much the same effect.
So important is the technology that it has been elevated to a national campaign issue this US election year. President Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry have each outlined plans to increase investment in the technology as part of their platform agendas, and policymakers of all stripes cite it as an important driver of future economic growth.
"If the United States is going to maintain its ability to grow its economy, I think the continued proliferation of broadband technologies is key to that solution," Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell said in a speech in May. "This is the central communication policy objective of the era. It's more than talk now. It is time for action."
Critical uses for broadband technology are multiplying every day in a wide range of fields:
Talkback
Perhaps possible in the USA, but unfortunately of little relevance to the UK.
In fact as more users sign-up for broadband in the UK & the contention ratio effect becomes more noticeable, plus the inability of many websites to cope, broadband can of course slow to below dial-up speeds.
A recent report actually cast doubts on the value of the Internet in education, etc.
Perhaps we should be discouraging the use of the Internet, not encouraging the use of it in conjunction with more life critical processes.
Imagine what would happen if the connection 'drops' at a critical point?
100% valid comment,broadband is not sweeping the streets of s.e. u.s.a.,human beings must limit their reliance on technology,life is hardwork,not as easy as the push of a button,technology will never care about us,living like the "jetsons"to me is a scary thought,no flowers,no lawn to mow,a technological "catastrophe"would result in more deaths than any war to date.would every one be scrambling to find an operational computer to survive instead of water,food,shelter.Seems no entity can do without "technology".the fireman,cops,doctor I will be without,if i'm not online?slow down.