St. Luke's to tweet surgery live

St. Luke's is planning to use the social media tool Twitter to “tweet” a live hysterectomy and uterine prolapse surgery on Monday, August 31 starting at 10 a.m.

Drs. Jerry Rozeboom and Owen McCarron from OB/GYN Associates will perform the robotic surgery in St. Luke's OR on a 70-year-old patient. A member of St. Luke's Marketing Communications team will be posting the tweets during real time based on information communicated from the doctors during the surgery.

St. Luke's believes it is the first hospital in the state to “Twitter-cast” a surgery. Other healthcare institutions have tweeted surgeries including Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, MI; Sherman Hospital, Elgin, IL and Children's Medical Center, Dallas, TX.

“We are trying to use social media to reach new and different audiences,” said Laura Rainey,

St. Luke's Marketing Communications director. “People want to know what's going on in operating rooms, and this will provide that in a less invasive way than Web cast surgeries.”

Followers of St. Luke's Twitter surgery are encouraged to ask questions throughout the surgery. In addition the patient's family will follow the Twitter surgery using a laptop.

What is Twitter? Twitter is a free micro-blogging service that allows users to broadcast and exchange short messages (less than 140 characters).

How do I sign up?

Visit Twitter.comClick on the green box that says “Sign up now”

Follow the prompts to set up a profile page

How do I follow St. Luke's on Twitter? Go to St. Luke's Web site stlukescr.org and click on the Twitter icon or type http://twitter.com/StLukesCR