YouTube Unveils Public Health & First Aid Education Videos

YouTube wants to help viewers learn first aid with a new slate of videos the social media and online video platform has posted to promote public health and first aid education.

The move comes as a part of YouTube's overarching mission to combat medical misinformation. By publishing and promoting more credible information, YouTube intends to quell the impact of incorrect information.

The videos will go over techniques to provide first aid in certain medical emergencies and include how-to instructions for

• CPR
• Choking/Heimlich
• Bleeding
• Heart attack
• Stroke
• Seizure
• Opioid overdose

YouTube said the videos will be pinned to the top of search results to make it easier for users to find credible information about how to address certain emergency situations. They will also live on what YouTube termed “first aid information shelves” alongside first aid videos from other creators that YouTube deems credible.

The addition of these videos is part of YouTube’s work to combat medical misinformation. In this case, the social media platform is promoting credible information, according to Garth Graham, MD, MPH, director and global head of Healthcare and Public Health Partnerships at YouTube.

“Today’s announcement is a significant step forward to increase access to authoritative resources on first aid care, especially for those without medical training at times when they may need it most,” Graham wrote in the YouTube press release. “We’re committed to harnessing the power of video to make public health information truly public.”

The videos were made in partnership with Mass General Brigham, which has previously partnered with YouTube to promote consumer access to credible health information.

“Our system is committed to providing credible, trusted information to our patients and, more broadly, to people seeking knowledge around the world,” Merranda Logan, MD, MPH, associate chief academic officer at Mass General Brigham, said in a public announcement. “We are thrilled to expand our YouTube educational series to include step-by-step basic first aid and emergency care videos in multiple languages.”

YouTube and Mass General Brigham were also joined by the Mexican Red Cross, which, along with its medical expertise, helped ensure access to videos in Spanish.

“We are very pleased to collaborate with YouTube Health to bring videos with techniques approved by the Mexican Red Cross and help people with first aid information just when they need medical support the most,” Ana Robles Quijano, the national fundraising coordinator from the Mexican Red Cross, said in the statement. “We want to help save lives and prevent bad first aid techniques that can be performed without the right medical knowledge. We will continue to work to add more reliable and easy-to-understand health content.”

YouTube also announced that it collaborated with the American Heart Association to create a CPR course, which is available to viewers for free on YouTube. The Spanish-language version of the course will be available next month.

“The mission of the Nation of Lifesavers movement is simple — to educate and prepare anyone to be confident to save a life in the event of a cardiac emergency,” Comilla Sasson, MD, PhD, vice president of health science for the American Heart Association, said in the announcement. “With this information available on YouTube in English and in Spanish anyone can learn the two-steps of Hands-Only CPR. It is also a place to hear firsthand from survivors on the importance of people being able to respond in an emergency.”