Cosmetic Surgery Times - April 2009 - (Page 10) COSMETIC SURGERY TIMES 10 ‘What Are You Doing?’ Just a decade ago, hospitals and medical practices began taking advantage of the Internet with Web sites designed to attract and educate potential patients. Posting videos to YouTube and press releases to Facebook, and even publishing blogs about specific departmental activities, was a natural outgrowth of that initial foray into online activity. Participation in the micro-blogging service Twitter, on the other hand, represents something of a paradigm shift. While this service is predicated on the desire to share information worldwide in real time just like YouTube and Facebook, it limits users to sharing information in sound bite-sized messages of no more than 140 characters. The service prompts users by both cell phone and computer all day long to answer the simple question “what are you doing?” WHY TWITTER SURGERY? The answer to the not-so-simple play,” explains Dr. Laungani. “He was able to see everything that was going on as well as hear the normal discussion that was taking place between the primary surgeon and the rest of the surgical team,” explains Bill Ferris, manager, Web Services Department, Henry Ford Health System. Dr. Laungani believes there are pluses to enabling patients to ‘see’ the details and virtually experience the stresses that surgeons face in the OR. “I think it’s beneficial when a patient comes to the office more informed about what we do, but by the same token, we have to make sure to retain an appropriate balance. Twittering and interactive messaging between laypeople and people with a medical background has to be handled delicately,” he says. Mr. Ferris says one of the aims of adding Twitter to the institution’s social networking armamentarium — which also includes YouTube, podcasts and blogs, is to connect with the public. “People are looking all over for their medical information. They’re looking to other patients; they’re looking for videos on YouTube, and they’re asking questions on micro-blogging services like Twitter, so it’s a matter of trying to be where the conversations are taking place. Health care’s a pretty intimate experience for the average person, so you don’t want to be intrusive, but if you can take advantage of another avenue to connect with the patient, then both the institution and the patient can benefit from that,” says Mr. Ferris. BEYOND THE PATIENT However, It goes Twitter limits its users to sound bite-sized messages of no more than 140 characters. „ question, ‘How can Twitter be of use to hospitals and medical practices?’ is a work in progress, and one that Henry Ford Hospital has broken ground on. This Detroit hospital was the scene of the first two live ‘Twittered’ surgeries in the first two months of this year. A third, with the addition of on-line video, was scheduled as Cosmetic Surgery Times was going to press. The completed procedures were robotic surgeries: the first a cystectomy; the second a partial nephrectomy. The cystectomy was Twittered and broadcast to hundreds of physicians attending a remote robotic surgery continuing medical education (CME) event. Physicians, prospective patients and anyone else with a Twitter account worldwide had a virtual ‘window’ into the surgical process. They had access to brief, frequent explanations of what the surgeon was doing and they could even ask questions posted via their Twitter accounts and get answers in real time. Craig Rogers, M.D., led the surgical team. Senior resident Raj Laungani, M.D., provided the commentary or “Tweets,” as they’re called, during the partial nephrectomy. Seated at a laptop outside of the sterile surgical field, Dr. Laungani watched the robotic procedure on a closed circuit television. “I’ve operated with Dr. Rogers so many times that I know his thought process, how he goes through an operation step by step. So, it’s very easy to understand the next step he’s going to do before he even does it, which helped me give a very accurate play by beyond connecting with the patient. Mr. Ferris sees Twitter — and other social media — as an apparatus to advance collaboration among researchers, support clinical trial recruitment, enhance CME efforts and aid in human resources recruitment, among other things. “It pretty much runs the gamut,” says Mr. Ferris. Mr. Stitt agrees and suggests that social media, coupled with the adoption of electronic health records (EHR) and/or online personal health records (PHR) will help reduce avoidable errors, unnecessary lab tests and emergency room admissions and help improve medication adherence. “Patients will use social media as a gateway to more complex online tools like EHR and PHR. Transparency is the main benefit,” says Mr. Stitt. While all medical specialties can benefit from transparency, Stitt suggests a few bonus features for cosmetic surgeons to consider: “Social media could be used in this setting to provide patient education, encourage competitive pricing and to share outcome and patient satisfaction ratings, among other things,” he points out. While it’s too soon to say how much of a foothold micro-blogging will gain in the burgeoning world of social networking or if physicians will be followers or leaders, Mr. Ferris says there’s one sure barometer. “If physicians see some sort of return — if it helps productivity, if it improves outcomes and safety — I imagine they will embrace it.” H
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.