According to an Oct. 27 blog post, YouTube announced that healthcare professionals, including nurses, physicians, and mental health professionals, can apply to have their channels verified. This action is intended to limit health misinformation on YouTube.
The blog states that “This [change] includes health source information panels that help viewers identify videos from authoritative sources and health content shelves that highlight videos from these sources when you search for health topics, so people can more easily navigate and evaluate health information online.”
Further, “Up until now, these features have only been available to organizations such as educational institutions, public health departments, hospitals and government entities. This new step will allow us to expand to include high quality information from a wider group of healthcare channels.”
For those applying for verified status, individuals must provide proof of their license, follow best practices for health information sharing set out by the Council of Medical Specialty Societies, the National Academy of Medicine, and the Word Health Organization. Their channel must also be in good standing on YouTube.
“All channels that apply will be reviewed against these guidelines, and the license of the applying healthcare professional will be verified. In the coming months, eligible channels that have applied through this process will be given a health source information panel that identifies them as a licensed healthcare professional and their videos will appear in relevant search results in health content shelves,” the blog post adds. “Health creators in the US can apply starting October 27th at health.youtube, and we’ll continue to expand availability to other markets and additional medical specialties in the future.”
The release says that “This is a big step towards helping people more easily find and connect with content that comes from the extraordinary community of healthcare creators on YouTube—the smart, dedicated and creative folks who are transforming the ways that we share medical information.”
