Does surgery belong online?

• Position: THE WEB - Medical advertising - Brief article

The point of Shila Mullins's brain surgery was to remove a tumor that threatened to paralyze her Left side. But Methodist University Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, also saw an opportunity to promote itself--with a webcast of her surgery. Muffins had an awake craniotomy, which means she remained awake and talking during the surgery. (The video shows Mullins reciting ABC's white doctors separate the tumor from her brain.)

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The hospital's marketing department promoted the webcast--which was not broadcast live, Like other surgeries at the hospital--in infomercials and newspaper ads, and tracked the number of viewers and the number...