YouTube in Healthcare

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     Everyone has gone on YouTube to watch the single ladies dancing baby, the double rainbow guy and that cute sneezing panda, but the site isn't just for entertainment. YouTube is the 3rd most visited website behind Google and Facebook and it’s already being used for patient education and healthcare marketing.

     Several people are using YouTube to self-diagnose and self-treat. You’ll find videos of people with no medical training performing at-home remedies or do-it-yourself procedures and the viewers take this advice to heart. “I don’t have the money to have a doctor remove my cyst, but this guy on YouTube removed his, so it can’t be that hard.”

     Healthcare professionals can do their part by providing free access to accurate information on health related topics. Children’s Hospital in Boston has over 1,000 videos on their YouTube Channel. Several of their videos are targeted towards patient education with topics ranging from Eating Out with Celiac Disease to Putting Contact Lenses in Young Children. By inserting themselves into the YouTube community, they are ensuring their customers have a reliable source for healthcare advice.

     Aside from acting as a source for patient education, if used correctly, YouTube can be a very useful business tool. Carolinas Healthcare System uses YouTube to broadcast a weekly news segment to market their facilities. They talk about current events in healthcare and they make sure to highlight new site openings and cutting-edge technology at their locations. Several facilities like Altoona Regional Healthcare System and University of Maryland Medical System have even turned to YouTube to help with their recruiting efforts. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be even better!

     YouTube also provides free analytical tools that help measure the success of videos. The “Insight” feature tracks viewer demographics, shows when people stop watching your video and even how much time viewers spend on each part of your video. With all these features available for free, taking advantage of them as a business should be a no-brainer.

     Social Media outlets like YouTube are contributing to the establishment of online reputations of healthcare companies and providers. That trend is only forecasted to continue, so it behooves hospitals and doctors to proactively establish a social media presence.

     Of course, the entertainment side is not going away, but there’s plenty of healthcare entertainment out there as well!

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Lindsay Harris is the Director of Business Development at Medestar.
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