Mayo Clinic’s first LIVE procedure broadcast #ScopeScope

Mayo Clinic will live-stream a colonoscopy on the mobile app Periscope on Tuesday, March 1, at 8:30 a.m. EST. The broadcast is part of Mayo Clinic’s ongoing collaboration with Fight Colorectal Cancer to raise awareness of the importance of colorectal cancer screening. March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.

Video and audio are available for download on the Mayo Clinic News Network.

“We’ve worked with Fight Colorectal Cancer on its One Million Strong campaign for the last three years to highlight the importance of appropriate screening,” says Lee Aase, director of the Mayo Clinic Social Media Network. “Our previous promotions included live patient events, a music video and a social media campaign. As we discussed plans for our 2016 promotion, I received a reminder for my colonoscopy, so we decided to take this opportunity to demystify the process by live-streaming the procedure on Periscope.”

The procedure, which will be broadcast on Mayo Clinic’s Periscope channel using the #ScopeScope hash tag, will be supplemented by additional commentary and interaction on Mayo Clinic’s Twitter account. Aase also will document the process leading up to his colonoscopy from his personal Twitter and Periscope accounts.

“About 50,000 Americans die from colorectal cancer each year, even though it is among the most treatable cancers when caught early,” says Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist Paul Limburg, M.D., Dr. Limburg encourages people to discuss colorectal cancer screening with their physicians. Dr. Limburg says that, in addition to colonoscopy, there are noninvasive screening options such as Cologuard a stool DNA test that patients can do at home and mail in for analysis. Cologuard was co-developed by Mayo Clinic and Exact Sciences. “The bottom line is the best screening test is the one that gets done,” says Dr. Limburg.