Providence Hospitals live-Tweeted a surgical procedure Wednesday, using words and photos on the social media platform to explain beating open-heart surgery.

The tweetup is the first stage of a new effort to get out information about Providence’s heart program.

A video of a beating open-heart surgery will be the subject of “Behind the Scenes with South Carolina’s Heart Hospital,” an educational program on Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. at the S.C. State Museum. Dr. Edward “Mac” Leppard, a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon at Providence, will discuss the procedure during that program. A cardiologist will talk about heart disease and prevention.

The program is designed to reach all levels — physicians, medical students, heart patients and potential heart patients.

Providence surgeons perform about 650 open-heart procedures each year, and about 85 percent are done using the beating-heart procedure.

“Beating-heart surgery means that the patient is never put on a heart and lung machine so his or her heart continues to beat while we are performing the procedure,” Leppard said. “Our outcomes, which place us in the top 15 percent of heart programs in the nation, are the evidence that this technique works for our team.”

The Sept. 20 event is free and open to the public. People who can’t get to the event have the option of following it online by registering at http://bit.ly/BeatingHeartSurgery. Providence can be followed on Twitter @ProvHospSC and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ProvidenceHospitals.

This compilation recaps the tweets about the surgery: