YouTube is taking expanding access to its products in order to provide its British users with accurate health information. Medical professionals in the U.K. can now apply if they want their channels to be listed as authoritative sources.
U.K.-based doctors, nurses, psychologists, and health organizations will be promoted by the same tools that highlight credible healthcare providers in the U.S. The most notable of those features is a shelf filled with “health sources,” which appears in search results related to specific medical conditions. The videos appearing on those shelves are identified through panels that discuss the featured creators’ credentials.
By pushing to provide the most accurate medical information possible, YouTube is attempting to counteract the rampant amount of misleading health advice on its platform. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, YouTube became a haven for vaccine truthers.
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In the United States, the response to that trend has been spearheaded by Dr. Garth Graham, who became YouTube’s Global Head of Healthcare in 2021. Initiatives led by Graham’s team have included a new policy on disordered eating content and the insertion of “personal stories” amid health-related search results.
As YouTube brings its medical fact-checking across the pond, it is teaming with prominent healthcare organizations in the U.K. Its partners include the World Health Organization and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, who have helped develop a set of criteria to define “credible” health sources.
“We all know how difficult it can be to differentiate between healthcare information from trusted and reliable sources, and content which is inaccurate or of doubtful provenance,” said Professor Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard, Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, in a statement. “We were delighted therefore when YouTube asked to partner with us to help find a solution. I am pleased to say we have been able to draw on our own expertise and that of organizations from across the UK healthcare landscape to produce an easy to apply set of principles which will ultimately benefit everyone who turns to YouTube seeking trustworthy health information.”
Interested healthcare providers in the U.K. who wish to apply for access to YouTube’s features can find the prerequisites here. Applications can be submitted through the YouTube Health hub, which also caters to doctors from the United States, Mexico, Brazil, and Germany.
