Teach with Twitter: Grey's Anatomy Edition

Warning: This blog post contains Grey's Anatomy spoilers from the February 3, 2011 episode.

Last night's Grey's Anatomy featured Twitter as a guest star. For those who are less than familiar with Grey's Anatomy, the show is based on a fictional team of doctors and medical story at a fictional Seattle teaching hospital. Among the show's major motifs is the importance of mentorship, and the doctors consistently explore creative  ways to teach their students.

In last night's episode, chief resident and surgeon, Dr. Miranda Bailey, used Twitter as a  teaching tool. While she performed surgeries, she tweeted her thought process and actions-- step by step.   Her followers could respond to her, ask  questions, share advice, and provide information as she performed stressful operations. They could reach her from any university and hospital from anywhere in the world.

At one key point of the show, Dr. Bailey's Twitter feed actually saved the life of one of her patients. In a split second, a follower recommended an experimental procedure for a dying patient. Even though Seattle Grace Hospital did not have the resources to perform this procedure, Twitter helped the surgeons quickly identify a nearby hospital that could help. In the end, the patient lived.

The show portrayed Twitter as both ethical and safe. Prior to surgeries, patients signed consent forms. While performing surgeries, Dr. Bailey selected a 'designated tweeter' so that she could devote her attention to her work. In the beginning of the show Grey's Anatomy ensured that viewers were skeptical of Twitter's value-- after all, what is the value of a Tweet?  As the plot evolved, so did the case for Twitter. The end of the show left us wowed and opened our eyes to the power of Twitter as something useful -- beyond social media and casual conversations. Twitter had tangible value. Twitter saved a life. Twitter became more than what we previously thought it to be.

Obviously, the television show was  glamorizing and simplifying an extremely complex relationship between social media, medical best-practices, and patient care. In reality, we do need to dig deeper into the ethics and safety concerns of tweeting while operating. In the surgery room, the patient should be the doctor's primary concern. Plus, what happens if the patient dies? Would a patient want his or her death publicized for friends, family, and strangers to see? How does someone consent to this type of scenario? These questions are tough to answer, and to some extent, Grey's Anatomy left the answers open-ended. In the end, the patient lived -- that's what mattered most.

Keeping these questions in mind, what should be the takeaway from last night's Grey's Anatomy episode?

First of all, social media should force us to think outside of the box. The power of Twitter stems beyond conversation. Twitter does have tangible value, especially as a teaching tool. As the field of social media continues to emerge and evolve, we should keep our basic objectives in mind by asking the question-- what are we saying and why are we saying it? We really can connect with people-- students and mentors-- from everywhere. Imagine the potential of a tool that enables us to learn without geographic barriers. The task might be tough to do in under 160 characters, but we can't help but think of the possibilities.

Second of all, we should take a step back to evaluate how we're advertising, communicating, and engaging with our social media communities. There are ethical gray zones with outcomes that are black and white -- good and bad. Social media is good, but we shouldn't let our "good" objectives misguide any intended or unintended consequences. That lesson is important-- in each and every field.

The fictional world of Grey's Anatomy showed us that social media is something very real with real consequences. How should we use it? How do we best assess the good, bad, and in-between?

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