People walk past a billboard commercial for YouTube in Berlin, Germany, on Sept. 27, 2019.
Sean Gallup | Getty Images
YouTube is taking steps to fight against medical misinformation, especially when it comes to finding immediate tips about how to handle an emergency.
The corporate on Wednesday introduced a feature called First Aid Information Shelves, a library of step-by-step videos that show people what to do in the event that they’re witnessing a drug overdose, heart attack or other life-threatening event.
Videos from accredited health organizations equivalent to Mass General Brigham will appear pinned to the highest of relevant search results so that they’re easy to discover. YouTube users in the U.S. can find videos on 12 topics, including CPR, seizures, choking, bleeding and psychosis. Most are a minute or two long.
“The entire idea is timing and conciseness and trying to share that information as easily as possible,” Garth Graham, global head of health care and public health at YouTube, told CNBC in an interview. Graham said people should all the time call first responders immediately in the case of an emergency.
The videos won’t contain ads, which implies Google-owned YouTube won’t earn a living from them, Graham said.
YouTube was not involved with the content creation, which Graham said was left to experts. As well as to Mass General Brigham, health organizations equivalent to the Mexican Red Cross and the American Heart Association have partnered with YouTube to help make the videos.
Content moderation has long been a challenge for YouTube, which removes videos in the event that they’re found to be in violation of the corporate’s guidelines. The method is usually slow and expensive. Medical misinformation became an even bigger problem in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic due to the constant spreading of inaccurate messaging related to the effectiveness of vaccines and masks.
In July 2021, greater than a yr after the onset of the pandemic, YouTube announced plans to label videos and promote credible sources after facing criticism for its role in spreading misinformation. The corporate banned several high-profile anti-vaxxer accounts and said in September of that yr that it had removed greater than 130,000 videos for violating its Covid policies.
At the same time as the pandemic has subsided, medical misinformation continues to proliferate. Researchers recently found that popular videos on YouTube about insomnia and sleep contain each “misinformation and industrial bias,” according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.
YouTube announced a recent framework for combating medical misinformation in August, outlining how the location will remove content that contradicts established guidance from health officials on subjects including cancer, Covid and reproductive health.
An example of what First Aid Information Shelves will appear like on YouTube.
‘First videos that you simply see’
Mass General Brigham, the biggest health-care system in Massachusetts, began officially partnering with YouTube in 2021 “to offer patients easier access to credible medical information,” according to a press release on the time.
The organization has a dedicated content team with an expertise in medical education that determines the topics and substance of the videos, said Dr. Merranda Logan, the health system’s associate chief academic officer.
For YouTube’s First Aid Information Shelves, Mass General Brigham’s team produced 11 videos across topics equivalent to heart attacks, strokes and seizures.
Logan said there’s a variety of medical information and misinformation online and distinguishing between the 2 generally is a challenge. She said people should have the option to turn to trusted experts in an emergency when “every minute, every second counts.”
“We wanted to be certain that these videos are the primary videos that you simply see while you’re on YouTube and also you seek for any of those topics,” Logan said in an interview. “These videos really will not be meant to replace calling 911, but to provide clear and concise information that may help during an emergency.”
When trying to find videos on CPR, users will find content from the AHA, which writes the rules on the procedure and, for the reason that late 1900s, has worked to educate people about how to handle those emergency situations.
“We’ve got a very strong interest in partnering with our serps that we all know where individuals are going for content to be certain that they are getting scientifically accurate content,” said Dr. Comilla Sasson, the AHA’s vp for health-care business solutions for emergency cardiovascular care.
Videos will initially be available in English and Spanish, thanks to the help of the Mexican Red Cross, Graham said. Mass General Brigham can be using one in all YouTube’s artificial intelligence-powered translation tools to present content in Spanish.
YouTube plans to add more topics, countries and languages in the longer term.
Graham said YouTube will frequently work with its partners to make sure the videos remain as accurate and up to date as possible. The shelves are a part of an “ongoing evolution of knowledge quality” at YouTube, he said.
“It is vital for us all to be prepared to respond to a series of common medical conditions that might occur to us, family, family members, people who find themselves passing by,” Graham said. “We should always be up to speed on that.”
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