Surgeons Tweet away while doing major surgery.
Feb19Written by:
2009/02/19 09:05 AM 
Last week, for the second known time, surgeons Twittered a surgery by using social-networking site Twitter to give short real-time updates about the procedure.
While doctors and nurses are in the operating room the chief resident is furiously Twittering on his laptop. Giving detailed 140 character description of the surgery live, as it happens.
Dr. Craig Rogers, the lead surgeon in the Henry Ford surgery, said the impetus for his Twittering was to let people know that a tumour can be removed without taking the entire kidney.
"Doing this removes a real communication barrier. It helps make something scary much more comprehendible," said Christopher Parks, co-founder of the Web site changehealthcare.com. "It brings us closer together and makes us more engaged."
Do you think this is creepy or do you think that this is an example of the way the New Social Medial is moving towards? What about the patients right to privacy? I would assume that they gave their consent.
Would you mind if your surgery was plastered line by line, minute by minute all over the internet?
Greys Anatomy for Twitter?
TwittER (Twitter ER)?
You can read the "Tweetstream" or watch video of the tumour removal on YouTube).
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/17/twitter.surgery/index.html
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