YouTube Health unveils first aid education videos

YouTube Health is making it even easier to find step-by-step explainer videos for basic first aid and emergency care made by authoritative health organizations.

The new first aid information shelves will be pinned to the top of YouTube search results, featuring easy-to-follow videos with the goal of helping people quickly find credible and actionable first aid information without reading or listening to complex instructions.

The shelves will appear prominently in search results for a variety of acute health topics, including CPR, Choking/Heimlich, Bleeding, Heart attack, Stroke, Seizure, and Opioid overdose.

How does it work?

YouTube Health partnered with Mass General Brigham and the Mexican Red Cross on content that will appear in the shelves alongside videos from other leading health organizations. The series includes videos on how to perform CPR, how to stop bleeding, and how to help someone who is overdosing.

First aid information health shelves are launching in the U.S. in English and Spanish, with additional countries and languages to come. As an early pilot tester of Aloud, YouTube's AI-powered dubbing tool, Mass General Brigham is able to share this critical health information beyond language barriers in Spanish.

To expand access to first aid information even further, YouTube Health worked with the American Heart Association to publish a CPR course — available for free on YouTube — aimed at helping people without a medical background learn hands-only CPR or refresh their skills. The course provides viewers the opportunity to take the next step beyond watching a single video, with an in-depth, structured learning experience. A Spanish-language version of the course will be available on the AHA's channel in February 2024 for American Heart Month.

The announcement is described as 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. And, YouTube says it is always working to grow the amount of authoritative health creators of many different backgrounds and languages on the platform, giving viewers even more choices when it comes to information on health-impacting topics.

On the record

"Our system is committed to providing credible, trusted information to our patients and, more broadly, to people seeking knowledge around the world," said Merranda Logan, MD, MPH, Associate Chief Academic Officer at Mass General Brigham. "We are thrilled to expand our YouTube educational series to include step-by-step basic first aid and emergency care videos in multiple languages."

"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. 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," said Ana Robles Quijano, National Fundraising Coordinator from the Mexican Red Cross.

"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," added Comilla Sasson, MD, PhD, Vice President of health science for the American Heart Association. "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."

The context

YouTube launched YouTube Health in 2020 with the idea to put high-quality health content at people's fingertips around the world — with a range of new features from health labels to identify licensed medical professionals to crisis resource panels for viewers in times of distress.

This latest launch is just another step in that direction to provide the general public with high-quality, health-related videos. Kudos to YouTube for pulling this off.