Extreme Marketing: Live Video and Tweets from the Operating Room

No, your eyes do not deceive you. This blog post really is a response to a New York Times article about hospitals that broadcast and tweet from operating rooms as a marketing tactic.

As with previous blog posts, my aim is not to make any sort of value judgement about the moral basis of this type of action. I'm interested in metrics (although the idea of the live broadcast of a surgery does fascinate me).

According to the article, although little data is published therein, webcasts of surgery and other such reports via social media of the ins and outs of surgery seem to be working. They're attracting viewers, followers and even new patients - all quantifiable points of analysis. And for hospitals in the US, attracting patients is key to maintaing a healthy bottom line. Health care is, afterall, a business.

It is so interesting that with all of the talk about how social media is difficult to measure, that the hospital mentioned in the above mentioned article uses such simple web-based metrics as well as "customer" (patient) feedback.