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Taking A Quick Look At Social Media While Preparing For Surgery In The Locker Room

For now, he has to keep his mind in productive balance of focus and relaxation.

Published onOct 25, 2022
Taking A Quick Look At Social Media While Preparing For Surgery In The Locker Room
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Audioguide English

Commented text below the picture.

Before going into the OR, the chief takes off his clothes and puts on green surgical scrubs. He grabs his mobile phone for a few instants of concentration… and keeping track of developments on social media. The whole day is interfused with very short breaks, with frequent intakes of information from the team, emails, direct short messages, and tweets. There will be a lot to do today, he tells me. As usual, several operations are planned in parallel in the three neurosurgical suites. In the ORs, the teams are already prepping the patients, and Vajkoczy will take things over at the exact moment when he is needed. For now, he has to keep his mind in productive balance of focus and relaxation. 

Next: Starting the day with a spine instrumentation

Comments
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Luise Graf:

Great to get a glimpse into the details of a surgeons day and how even the little moments are filled with work

Anna L. Roethe:

The scientific workup of social media integration in (neuro)surgical contexts has increased significantly in recent years. From dissemination of recently published results, presentation of technological upgrades (including but not limited to hospital marketing strategies), patient and trainee education to more philosophical disputes about if, when and how to operate someone: delivering and receiving information about the field has changed. In 2011, the Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) prominently tweeted live about an awake temporal lobectomy in an epilepsy patient, helping coin the somewhat awkward and short-lived term ›twurgery‹. Notably, however, the blending of expert and lay audiences prospers in the process, creating new forms (and formats) of dialogue between medical sciences and humanities, doctors and patients.

Anna L. Roethe:
  • Shlobin, Nathan A., Steven C. Hoffman, Jeffrey R. Clark, Benjamin S. Hopkins, Kartik Kesavabhotla, and Nader S. Dahdaleh. “Social Media in Neurosurgery: A Systematic Review.” World Neurosurgery 149 (May 2021): 38–50.

  • Nouri, Aria, Julien Haemmerli, Alexandre Lavé, Pia Vayssiere, Paul Constanthin, Abdullah Al-Awadhi, Gregory Zegarek, et al. “Current State of Social Media Utilization in Neurosurgery amongst European Association of Neurosurgical Societies (EANS) Member Countries.” Acta Neurochirurgica 164, no. 1 (January 2022): 15–23.