The use of social networking sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media is exploding, particularly among millions of young people. Social network sites have been increasingly adopted by many online health-related professional and educational services. Social networking may represent an effective way for surgeons to better serve, i.e., to communicate, to educate, to care, for their patients, the public, medical students, residents and the general public.

In this session, we will inform surgeons about how they can use social networking and the potential uses and abuses of social network sites. You can follow this panel discussion now (premeeting) and live (during the panel) on Twitter by following the hashtag #ACS2010.

Presentations for this session include:

Multimedia Introduction - To Tweet or Become Extinct?: Why Surgeons Need to Understand Social Networking and Social Media
Philip L. Glick, MD MBA FACS, Buffalo, NY (@Glicklab)

To Twitter or Die: The ABC's of Safe Surgical Social Networking
Zack Glick, MS, Syracuse, NY  (@z1g1)

Can Tweeting Make You Smarter or Dumber: Using Social Networking for Graduate Medical Education, Continuing Medical Education, and Patient Care
Sani Z. Yamout, MD, Buffalo, NY  (@Sani2012 and @PedSurgZn)

Oper @ ting Safely on Social Networks: Legal Do's and Don'ts
Rebekah A. Z. Monson, JD, Philadelphia, PA

The E-Patient Is In: How Social Networking Can Make You a Better Surgeon
Susannah Fox, BA, Washington, DC  (@SusannahFox)

Note: American College of Surgeons is @AmCollSurgeons on Twitter.