Biopharma Business

A surgeon at the Royal London Hospital has become the first to live-tweet surgery.

Using the @NHS Twitter account, which launched last year to give staff and patients a way to talk about their experiences with the service, Mr Shafi Ahmed provided a virtual tour of a day in the life of a surgeon.

Mr Ahmed tweeted throughout his day, from his morning commute to meeting his theatre team and carrying out safety checks before surgery. There was an even an opportunity for the public to vote on which surgical cap Mr Ahmed would wear, with Superman being the winner.

While Mr Ahmed operated to remove cancer from the bowel of his patient, 62 year-old Doug Williams, a member of his theatre team continued to tweet updates and photos.

The live session gave the public and medical students an opportunity to submit questions to the surgeon once Mr Ahmed finished the surgery, providing a great learning experience.

Mr Shafi Ahmed, consultant general, Laparoscopic and Colorectal surgeon at Barts Health NHS Trust, said: “Twitter is an ideal platform to demystify surgery, bringing the world-class operations performed every day in the NHS to everyone’s mobile phones. It’s important for patients to see how we work to keep them safe in surgery, as well as inspire future surgeons by giving a glimpse into how we operate.”

Doug Williams said: “I’m a big fan of technology and am happy to support this being on Twitter. It will make surgery better for the future by helping other surgeons to learn.”

Written by Reece Armstrong