Brain Survery Live Broadcast Onto Social Media From UCLA

There are some moments in a person’s life that they feel inclined to share on social media, such as what they’re currently eating, wearing or listening to. But one thing I think we can all agree should stay behind closed doors is surgery, especially brain surgery and that’s exactly what UCLA Health Systems shared yesterday on not just one, but three separate social media sites.

Twitter, Vine and Instagram were used to live broadcast the implantation of a brain pacemaker, which took a total of six hours to complete. During that time, regular updates were posted on Twitter along with Vine videos and Instagram photos. Some of the updates featured the patient being awakened during the surgery to play a guitar in order to help fine tune the placement of the implant.

The purpose of the social media blitz was to help raise awareness and reduce fear about the procedure, which we’re sure many of us can’t fathom going through any kind of brain surgery sometime in our lives. In this case, the brain pacemaker is being used as a way to treat Parkinson’s disease as well as essential tremor. Since it’s for education purposes, we guess it’s ok for you to watch a surgery on social media.

Daniel Perez
Categories: Medical, Videos (web)
Tags: Instagram, social media, surgery, Twitter, vine