Twitter in the OR
The last time I had surgery I distinctly remember how grateful I was that they put me to sleep in the first few minutes in the OR. Seeing all the equipment and those faces behind masks and gowns, while reassuring that I was indeed in the correct place, made me a little nervous but happy to soon be oblivious to what was about to happen. Well, apparently some people may be quite interested in exactly what is going on - and they aren't just the people in the OR or the waiting room!
Recently a 70-year-old woman undergoing gynecological surgery in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, gave her permission to have a play by play of her surgery posted on Twitter by a hospital spokesperson throughout her surgery. Over 300 tweets were sent over the 3-hour surgery to about 700 followers. Tweets included information concerning indications for the surgery and then the actual technique, minute by minute, step by step, patient condition, etc. Tweets included photos of the robotic equipment and actual internal stitches. Questions were even taken from Twitter followers and answered by the surgeon during the surgery! Understandably, everyone agreed prior to the procedure that tweeting would stop if tweeting became a distraction or if a complication arose - I am sure the lawyers agreed with this too!
There are other hospitals in the country which have used Twitter in the operating room - a Dallas hospital official tweeted in May when a father donated a kidney to his son, and Detroit hospital officials tweeted about several surgeries this year. Is this the next social networking opportunity?
It must be a bit surreal to be talking to the virtual world of Twitter followers while operating on the actual patient. Well, the physician may be talking but the tweeting is done by someone else. What if the person tweeting gets it wrong? That could cause some alarm among the 700 followers. What if the person tweeting just makes a little error of omission...like forgetting to put "no" in the "there is no carcinoma found."
As a medical documentation specialist, I think it would also be fun to see how speech recognition would tweet the physician's words instead of a hospital official texting or someone editing the speech rec. Now that may be something fun to follow on Twitter!
In any case, as the patient, I still think it is better to be asleep and oblivious to the graphic details of my surgery! Let the virtual world learn of my progress but keep me out of it!