The University at Buffalo has a novel prescription for its aspiring surgeons: Twitter.

According to FierceHealthCare.com, Dr. Philip L. Glick—vice chairman and professor in UB’s Department of Surgery and professor of pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology—recently noted that “surgeons should embrace social media to accelerate and enhance the flow of information for medical training.” 

Because surgery is a visual occupation—tough to cut what you can’t see!—“Social media allows us to take digitized audio and video content of procedures, edit it into pieces that have some teaching value and share it,” Dr. Glick explained.

Obviously this is new ground, and the American College of Surgeons and the American Medical Association are still parsing out the guidelines for appropriate Twitter usage by medical practitioners.  And while the aspiring surgeons at the University at Buffalo are a mature, responsible bunch, there are some tweets that you never want to see coming from your own sawbone’s account:

- Really having 2nd thoughts about my career choice today.  Oh well, off to OR

- chief resident said i am doing laparoscopic surgery today and i was like wtf is a laparoscope

- working on my “sorry for yr loss” face

- THERE IS BLODD EVERYWHERE

- @bro_doc said i couldnt do pull an appendix faster than him. LETS RACE MOFO

- Tough day.  4 out of 10 gets you in the HOF in baseball tho right?

- Y SO MUCH BLOOD

- i cant feel my face

- Off to the Phish show, then 72 hours in the ER!

- extra kidney any buyers DM me

Photo from the Flickr stream of Army Medicine.