Your Surgery, Live on Twitter

Surgeons have tapped into the benefits of using Twitter to broadcast their findings to other doctors in reat-time, according to KevinMd. Kevin makes the point that using Twitter provides a means to share medical findings instantly with a wide audience.

But he also takes the long view, raising questions about patient privacy.  Doctors will have to obtain the consent of patients whose surgeries will be “tweeted.”  And though he does not invoke it specifically, what role will HIPAA authorization play in such surgeries?  What about the legal angle?  Will “tweets” be admissible evidence in a medical malpractice case if the surgery is performed negligently?  Stay tuned, using your Blackberry, Netbook, Smartphone…