Very recently in the UK, Spire Bushey Hospital in Watford used Twitter and Vine to tweet and video live surgery in the OR for educational purposes. Aresh Hashemi-Nejad, an orthopaedic surgeon at Spire Bushey, performed a Periacetabular Osteotomy (PAO), a complex hip operation involving cutting the pelvis around the hip joint and repositioning it to better support the bone.
The procedure was captured in 13 short videos, photos and regular live tweets. The OR team helped the 'tweeter' by offering clarification and insight into the procedure, ensuring that the surgeon was free from distractions. To view the tweets from the procedure go to:
http://storify.com/spirebushey/liveatbushey
The patient fully consented to the live tweet but wished to remain anonymous. The procedure went according to plan and Spire Bushey hopes to live tweet more medical procedures in the future.
I interviewed Felicity Knights and Holly Broadway from Merchant Marketing, the healthcare communications agency that provided social media consultancy to Spire Bushey. They were generous enough to give me their thoughts on the experience. Watch the following video to learn more.
(Editor's note: you will hear the audio, but not see the visual of the interviewer on this video.)
This post is a shared exclusive with the Health Works Collective, a sister site to Social Media Today.