US hospital webcasts brain surgery to promote services
01 June 2009
Hospitals in the United States are using non-conventional ways to connect with stakeholders, including social networking platforms and webcasts.
- Image credits: FutureGov / US hospital webcasts brain surgery
A hospital in the United States has webcast an operation to remove a brain cancer as part of a promotional campaign to educate patients, entice donors, and recruit top doctors.
The film of an operation to remove a malignant brain tumour that threatened to paralyse a patient of the Methodist University Hospital in Memphis has been seen by more than 21,000 viewers on YouTube.
The webcast has resulted in a number of requested appointments.
Faced with economic pressures, hospitals in the US have been using non-conventional ways to connect with stakeholders, including the use of Twitter from operating rooms and having patients blog about their procedures.
According to Ed Bennett, web strategy director for the University of Maryland Medical System, more than 250 hospitals across US now use YouTube, Twitter, blogs or Facebook – considered inexpensive communication channels - to market themselves.
