Twitter and an Ongoing Cancer Surgery

The ongoing Twitter question is “What are you doing?”. In the case of a particular Twitter stream, the appropriate answer to that question would be “surgery”:

“…the fact that it does allow for interactivity, as well as an archive for future review would both seem to be important components. Twitter isn’t the only way to achieve this, but it is a way. I think it’s safe to say that we learned from this experience that you need to have a visual component as well and it would have been enhanced had all followers had access to the video stream.”

link: Twitterville Notebook: The first live-tweeted surgery

One’s initial reaction simply may be wondering ‘why’. The basic answer is that such a communication network can place experts, from around the globe, in that operating theatre. The benefits to the patient are enormous.

As Twitter users know, there is the ‘fail whale’ phenomenon. Today, for example, I have had this repeated Twitter screen: “Something is technically wrong.“. Twitter is indeed in its infancy; but the possibilities are tantalizing.

Catherine Forsythe

*** my thanks to Jesse Newhart (@JesseNewhart) for bring this to my attention on Twitter. Jesse is a wonderful information source on Twitter.

Catherine (or @DogReader on Twitter)