BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The chief of surgical oncology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) will remove a patient's adrenal gland Friday, Oct. 23 in a safe and commonly performed operation. But frequent live Twitter updates posted by medical coordinators during the operation will make this procedure unique.
UAB's first tweeted operation is a chance to explore new ways of engaging and teaching medical students and practicing physicians who are interested in minimally invasive techniques, says Martin Heslin, M.D., chief of UAB's Section of Surgical Oncology and the lead surgeon on the Twitter operation.
As a medical-education tool, tweeting surgery makes sense for tech-savvy doctors and students already familiar with social media and real-time updates to their mobile telephones, hand-held devices and laptops, says Craig Hoesley, M.D., associate dean for medical education at UAB. "We're taking a communications tool that already is a staple and applying it to learning about direct medical care.
"It is a perfect fit for a new generation of medical students."
Heslin will perform the adrenalectomy on a man in his mid 40s to help relieve his drug-resistant high blood pressure. The operation will be performed using one of the two da Vinci robotic surgery systems at UAB Hospital.
"Robotic surgery is an attractive and safe alternative to traditional open surgery and a refinement on the concept of laparoscopic surgery," Heslin says. The increased surgical accuracy comes from tiny cameras attached to the end of the robotic instruments that relay magnified 3-D images from inside the patient to operating-room monitors. Also, the robotic instrumentation offers doctors improved dexterity with subtle twists and turns of the doctors' hands compared to conventional laparoscopic procedures.
The case can be followed on UAB Medicine's Twitter account at www.uabmedicine.org/twittersurgery. The surgery tweets will begin about 8 a.m. and should continue for more than an hour. A non-operating doctor will be present to relay information from Heslin to an assigned tweeter working from a sterilized corner of the operating room.
Twitter is a free micro-blogging service that allows users to broadcast and exchange short messages in 140 characters or less. For more information or to sign up for an account go to Twitter.com.
About UAB
UAB is the state of Alabama's largest employer and an internationally renowned research university and academic health center whose professional schools and specialty patient care programs are consistently ranked among the nation's top 50. The UAB Health System includes all of the University of Alabama at Birmingham's patient care activities, including UAB Hospital, the Callahan Eye Foundation Hospital and The Kirklin Clinic. Find more information at www.uab.edu and www.uabmedicine.org.