YouTube has reportedly launched two new features- health content shelves and health source information panels- in India as the platform looks to expand credible, authoritative, and engaging health insights.

These features will be available in Hindi and English and will offer context cues intended at aiding people to easily access videos from authentic health sources.

Health source information panels will be showcased under videos from government entities and authentic health organizations, helping viewers better assess the information source and differentiate credible healthcare content on the platform.

On the other hand, health content shelves will focus on videos from legitimate sources when viewers search for specific health-related topics.

For example, when users search for specific conditions like breast cancer, heart disease among others on the platform, a new section in the search page will provide videos about the meaningful health topics from government entities and credible health organizations.

Dr. Garth Graham, the Director and Global Head of Healthcare and Public Health at YouTube, expressed that video can help in understanding and accessing complex clinical topics with ease in comparison to text. This is the reason the company is making investments to grow the platform’s role as an engaging, effective, and trusted public health communication tool through partnerships, principles, and product development.

To recognize the credential of the sources to be included in the new features, YouTube initially used a set of principles developed by an expert panel assigned by the NAM (National Academy of Medicine) in the U.S.

Recently, the World Health Organization and NAM organized an interdisciplinary expert meeting worldwide to validate and review the principles for global applications.

Dr. Graham also stated that the platform is exploring methods to expand eligibility and assess the inclusion of other health sources as well as the expansion of these features worldwide.

YouTube also detailed different measures it has implemented over the past two years to fight misinformation around vaccine hesitancy and the pandemic in general.

Source credit:

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/youtube-debuts-two-new-features-to-help-improve-credible-health-info-in-india-8270031.html