BLOG

As society in general continues to move towards a more digital landscape, sharing and posting photos, videos, and information on social media continues to grow. Younger generations are using social media and the internet for things that the older generations could never have imagined. It’s truly amazing that most people have a device in their pockets, with them at all times, that can answer any question they may have, at any time.

With large social networks taking over the internet, and the spread of information becoming easy, and sometimes dangerous, it’s interesting to look to the future to see where we’re headed.

Today, most people use social media to keep in touch with friends and family members, to post photos and videos focusing on what they are doing, and even using these platforms to look for future life partners. Things that would have gotten you strange looks in the infancy of the internet are now the lifeblood of what the internet is.

It’s amazing and scary at the same time.

As we’ve seen all over the world as of late, information can spread extremely fast on social networks and it’s hard for some people to understand what is real and what is exaggerated or fake. We’ve seen this in the current political landscape as well as in the medical field.

Social media is a great tool to use as individuals and as businesses, but where do we draw the line? What sort of things should we be posting and what things should we reserve for private conversations?

There’s a fine line between truth and misinformation these days, as well as restraint when it comes to publishing certain things.

With that being said, more and more doctors and surgeons are moving into the social realm when it comes to communicating with patients and even trying to attract new patients.

Should Surgical Procedures Be Lived Streamed on Social Media?

Live streaming is becoming more and more popular as technology advances and people are looking for more ways to interact with people. Having the ability to share an experience with your followers or fans on social media brings are more personal touch to the idea of online interaction. But where do we draw the line?

There are many plastic surgeons in the country that broadcast their surgical procedures live on their social media channels for anyone to watch. This could be anything from a simple procedure all the way up to extensive surgery, but one fact remains, it’s not for everyone.

As a patient, would you find that watching a surgeon perform a procedure live would help you make a decision about whether or not to use that doctor, or to undergo that procedure for yourself?

As a doctor, are you comfortable enough, and trust yourself enough, to put yourself and your work out there for the world to see?

As doctors ourselves, we would hope that anyone live streaming their procedures would be highly skilled and highly capable of performing the surgeries to the best of their ability. We hope that all their techniques and the way they handle themselves, are conducive to the best results for the patient.

Surgical procedures can sometimes be more intense than a lot of people realize, but doctors understand what they can and cannot do to a patient in order to achieve the best results with the least amount of side effects. There are also challenges that can arise during surgery that may not be suitable to show viewers on social media.

In certain cases we can see why it would be important to broadcast a surgery across the internet, but live streaming every surgery, or random surgeries, has a lot of risk involved. We don’t recommend always live streaming surgical procedures unless they are intended for private training viewers. The public doesn’t always understand what goes into surgeries and it could land you in hot water with the patient and could even be used in court if something were to go wrong.

Social Media and Plastic Surgery

Social media is a great way to attract potential patients and to show off your work, but we recommend sticking to photos and pre-recorded videos as opposed to live demonstrations. While we don’t condone editing or manipulating the images and videos that you show on your website, there’s so much that can go wrong, or be misconstrued, in a live video when compared to picking and choosing what shows up on your website and social channels.

If you’re looking for other ways to engage your followers, or possible future patients, live streaming does have its pros though. Answering questions from people live, or talking about different procedures using images and diagrams, is a great way to utilize live streaming without having to show the actual surgery.

Finding new and innovative ways to use social media in the medical setting can help set you apart from other doctors, but live streaming surgical procedures can open you up to a lot of the negative aspects of the internet, which may have the opposite effect you’re trying to accomplish.