How a Doctor is Using YouTube for Medical Education

TMED Blog

| 23 March 2024

Written by Jasmin Khela, MSc 25' (Candidate)

On February 8, 2024, the Department of Medicine welcomed Dr. Andrea Furlan to share her journey and experience of using YouTube for chronic pain education. Dr. Furlan discussed the moral obligation physicians have in educating the public, and the benefits of using YouTube for patient education. After her presentation, Dr. Furlan met with TMED students to engage in a thoughtful discussion about the Medical Grand Rounds topic.

Patient education is a dual responsibility where physicians have a duty to inform, and patients have the responsibility to act on the information.1 Patient education has shown to improve health outcomes, self-efficacy, and chronic illness care.1,2 Physicians have a moral obligation to share their knowledge, expertise, and abilities with the public through education. Physicians can promote patient education and engagement by improving patients’ health literacy.1

Dr. Furlan described the role of clinicians in shaping patients’ beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours about how to manage their pain. Without adequate advice and information from healthcare providers, patients might be led to believe that surgical approaches to care are their only option.3,4 She emphasized the biopsychosocial approach to managing chronic pain conditions and considered three key actions to promote this conceptual shift in understanding (i.e., change the message, change the treatment focus, put the patient in charge).5 Additionally, motivation, deconditioning, and fear of movement were identified as three key obstacles which needed to be overcome through chronic pain education.6,7,8

In recognition of time and resource constraints in clinical settings and the need to educate the public on chronic pain management, Dr. Furlan launched her YouTube channel in 2019. Dr. Furlan outlined several advantages of using YouTube for chronic pain education, including its accessibility in many places, ability to reduce language barriers, and the potential to generate revenues.9,10,11 YouTube can also be beneficial instead of reading materials, as viewers can see, hear, and read information on chronic pain at the same time and at their own pace.9 In addition, Dr. Furlan explained that in comparison to other social media platforms, YouTube videos can maintain their relevancy throughout time. For example, Dr. Furlan’s 2021 video on exercises for post-stroke shoulder pain has sustained viewership today with over 150K views.

Despite the advantages of using YouTube for medical education, there are concerns about the lack of peer-review process and the growing popularity of YouTube channels which spread medical misinformation.10,12,13 To address this, Dr. Furlan drew attention to the new YouTube Health Initiative, which recognizes information as a determinant of health and prevents the circulation of medical misinformation by partnering with medical experts and health organizations.14

Since the launch of her YouTube channel, Dr. Furlan has amassed 624K subscribers, and supported patients across the globe with chronic pain. Dr. Furlan has attributed the success of her YouTube channel to the “3 C’s”: Consumer, Content, and Consistency. Dr. Furlan explained the importance of knowing your consumer when developing content for videos to gain more traction and effectively communicate health information in a way that can be understood by the public. Additionally, high quality video content is necessary for the public to learn, adopt and modify their lifestyles to improve their health. This can be achieved through forming well-researched scripts and improving the delivery of video content by adjusting cameras, lighting, microphones, etc. Establishing consistency in posting videos also increases the likelihood of your videos being recommended to the public.

In our extended conversation with Dr. Furlan, the benefits of YouTube for improving patient outcomes and supporting other healthcare providers became more apparent. Dr. Furlan discussed the overall positive feedback she received from patients and fellow colleagues about her educational videos, as well as the diverse applications of YouTube for medical education across various specialties. Dr. Furlan concluded with a candid discussion about her career path and the importance of mentorship in advancing her career. While Dr. Furlan hopes to maintain an active presence on her YouTube channel, she expressed an interest to work beyond her role in YouTube and ECHO, as a mentor for other healthcare professionals involved in the diagnosis and management of chronic pain patients.

Using YouTube for medical education can have important implications for the practice of translational medicine and patient care. Through physician-patient interactions and effective communication, healthcare professionals can develop learning objectives and goals with patients to improve their health literacy. Additionally, care recommendations frequently conveyed to patients in clinics can be translated into accessible educational interventions (ex. videos, graphic tools) that can be delivered in healthcare settings, resulting in improvements to patient outcomes and population health.

References

Paterick TE, Patel N, Tajik AJ, Chandrasekaran K. Improving health outcomes through patient education and partnerships with patients. Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2017 Jan;30(1):112–3.
Wagner EH, Austin BT, Davis C, Hindmarsh M, Schaefer J, Bonomi A. Improving chronic illness care: translating evidence into action. Health Aff (Millwood). 2001;20(6):64–78.
Darlow B, Brown M, Thompson B, Hudson B, Grainger R, McKinlay E, et al. Living with osteoarthritis is a balancing act: an exploration of patients’ beliefs about knee pain. BMC Rheumatol. 2018 Jun 12;2(1):15.
Hurley M, Dickson K, Hallett R, Grant R, Hauari H, Walsh N, et al. Exercise interventions and patient beliefs for people with hip, knee or hip and knee osteoarthritis: a mixed methods review. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2018 Apr 17;4(4):CD010842.
Caneiro JP, O’Sullivan PB, Roos EM, Smith AJ, Choong P, Dowsey M, et al. Three steps to changing the narrative about knee osteoarthritis care: a call to action. Br J Sports Med. 2020 Mar;54(5):256–8.
Vlaeyen JWS, Linton SJ. Fear-avoidance and its consequences in chronic musculoskeletal pain: a state of the art. Pain. 2000 Apr;85(3):317–32.
Geneen LJ, Moore RA, Clarke C, Martin D, Colvin LA, Smith BH. Physical activity and exercise for chronic pain in adults: an overview of Cochrane Reviews. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017 Apr 24;2017(4):CD011279.
Verbunt JA, Seelen HA, Vlaeyen JW, van de Heijden GJ, Heuts PH, Pons K, et al. Disuse and deconditioning in chronic low back pain: concepts and hypotheses on contributing mechanisms. Eur J Pain. 2003;7(1):9–21.
Curran V, Simmons K, Matthews L, Fleet L, Gustafson DL, Fairbridge NA, et al. YouTube as an educational resource in medical education: a scoping review. Med Sci Educ. 2020 Jun 29;30(4):1775–82.
Gayef A, Çaylan A. Use of YouTube in medical education. Konuralp Medical Journal. 2021; 13(3):640-7.
Hasamnis AA, Patil SS. YouTube as a tool for health education. J Educ Health Promot. 2019 Dec 31;8:241.
Javidan A, Nelms MW, Li A, Lee Y, Zhou F, Kayssi A, et al. Evaluating YouTube as a source of education for patients undergoing surgery: a systematic review. Ann Surg. 2023 Oct 1;278(4):e712–8.
Hornung AL, Rudisill SS, Suleiman RW, Siyaji ZK, Sood S, Siddiqui S, et al. Low back pain: What is the role of YouTube content in patient education? J Orthop Res. 2022;40(4):901–8.
Graham G. New ways for licensed healthcare professionals to reach people on YouTube [Internet]. YouTube Official Blog; 2022 Oct 27 [cited 2024 Feb 11]. Available from: https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/new-ways-licensed-healthcare-professionals-product-feature-application/

How a Doctor is Using YouTube for Medical Education

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How a Doctor is Using YouTube for Medical Education

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