Bengaluru: Reiterating its commitment to help people find authoritative, credible and engaging health information, YouTube Health has announced the roll-out of two new features, health source information panels and health content shelves. The new features, which will be available in English and Hindi, will provide context cues aimed at helping people more easily access videos from verified health sources.
Health source information panels will provide context to help viewers identify videos from authoritative sources. These health labels will show up under videos from accredited health organizations and government entities, so viewers can better evaluate the source of information and distinguish credible health content on YouTube.
Health content shelves will more effectively highlight videos from authoritative sources when viewers search for specific health topics. For example, when users search for specific health conditions such as heart disease, breast cancer among many others, a new content shelf in search will surface videos related to the relevant health topic from accredited health organizations and government entities. These shelves are intended to visually separate and highlight authoritative videos in search.
To identify which sources to include in these new health features, YouTube Health initially used a set of principles developed by a panel of experts convened by the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) in the United States. The World Health Organization and NAM recently convened a meeting of interdisciplinary experts from around the world to review and validate the principles for global application.
Speaking about the roll-out of the new features, Dr. Garth Graham, Director and Global Head of Healthcare and Public Health, YouTube said, “Video can help make complicated, clinical topics understandable and accessible in ways that text simply cannot. YouTube has the potential to transform how healthcare providers inform, educate, and motivate people to live healthier lives. That’s why we’re investing to grow our platform’s role as an effective, engaging, and trusted tool for public health communication through principles, partnerships and product development. We remain committed to our mission to provide equitable access to highly authoritative health information that is evidence-based, culturally relevant and engaging.”
At a time when online video has become the entry point for all new users coming online today, YouTube has become an indispensable part of the lives of millions of Indians. In fact, 69% of users said that YouTube has been a reliable source of information since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic*.
Recognizing the need for access to credible information that addressed widespread misinformation around the pandemic and vaccine hesitancy, YouTube created a destination for users to find reliable content in 8+ Indian languages from authoritative sources featuring content from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, leading hospitals and popular creators. Since February 2020, YouTube’s information panels and efforts to help users find authoritative COVID-19 information across YouTube’s homepage have been shown more than 250 billion times in India.
Over the last year, YouTube Health has partnered with leading health organizations like Apollo Hospitals and Max Healthcare, as well as with clinicians and creators, and continued to increase the accessibility of high quality health content on the platform.
Speaking about the role of digital video in revolutionizing how people consume information, Dr. Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Group, said, “Apollo Hospitals has leveraged YouTube to reach people from across the country with vetted, expert, helpful health information. During the pandemic, our YouTube channel was an important component of our larger comprehensive response plan, Project Kavach, providing timely and critical information about COVID-19 and vaccines from subject matter experts. We are happy with the value that our YouTube channel adds to our communication, allowing us to deliver trustworthy, fact-based information in various regional languages to millions of users across India.”
On the growing relevance of digital content, Mr. Anas Wajid, Senior Director and Chief – Sales & Marketing Officer, Max Healthcare, said, “Over the years, the consumption of digital content related to healthcare has been steadily increasing. However, post-Covid, this shift has been exponential. In this age of content glut, a big area of concern for healthcare providers is to ensure the right information from the right source is available at the right time. We see our partnership with YouTube as a huge enabler in this effort towards disseminating credible health information in a simple manner.”
In 2020, YouTube Health also launched health panels for depression and anxiety to provide users with helpful, easy to understand information from authoritative sources, so that they can make more informed decisions about the content they watch and care or support they seek.
