"YouTube had over 6 million uploads of health videos, which had over 75 billion views in India in 2023," said Dr Garth Graham, the director and head of YouTube Health. Over the last few years, the video sharing platform has been playing a key role in transforming access to healthcare information across India through video content. Dr Graham in an exclusive interview with indianexpress.com, said that YouTube focuses on delivering credible health information while addressing the linguistic and cultural barriers in India. "India's commitment to digital innovation, especially in healthcare, is truly inspiring, with the medical ecosystem embracing digital and AI technology - especially evident during India's response to the COVID-19 pandemic," Dr Graham said. The YouTube executive revealed that to ensure information credibility, the platform has implemented specific features that allow users to identify authoritative sources. "We want to provide equitable access to evidence-based, highly authoritative health information, and we're doing this with a focus on two key areas – information quality and information equity," Dr Graham explained. According to Dr Graham, YouTube offers a trove of health information from experts and esteemed organisations that can help Indians make more informed choices about their health. He also said that the platform has introduced health source information panels and content shelves to highlight videos from accredited Indian organisations such as All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) as well as private healthcare facilities such as Apollo Hospitals and Max Healthcare. Expansion and combating misinformation The platform has also expanded its verification process to include individual healthcare professionals. "This will allow us to expand to include high quality information from a wider group of healthcare channels," said Dr Graham. "The expansion represents a big step towards helping people more easily find and connect with content that comes from the extraordinary community of healthcare creators on YouTube," he added. YouTube currently maintains strict medical misinformation policies, removing content that contradicts health authority guidance on prevention, treatments, transmission, and vaccines for specific conditions. These include content that dispute the existence of health conditions or promoting harmful substances and practices. Dr Graham emphasised that strategic partnerships were a crucial part of YouTube’s healthcare initiative in India. "We've continued to invest to grow our role as an effective, engaging, and trusted platform for health communication," he said. At present, YouTube collaborates with some of the leading hospitals in the country to make authoritative healthcare content pertaining to over 140 medical conditions. This content is being offered across multiple Indian languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Bengali, and English. The platform has also introduced multi-language audio features to overcome language barriers. This feature lets creators upload multiple audio tracks, allowing users to access the content in their desired language. "Our multi-language audio feature is helping health creators reach Indian viewers across India's diverse linguistic landscape to find trusted health content that may have otherwise been inaccessible," explained Dr Graham. The YouTube executive emphasised the platform’s role in personal health management. According to him, YouTube is already a part of a patient’s journey, with millions around the world using the platform to explore and find answers to all kinds of health queries. “They're learning from health experts who have developed the skills to connect at scale with engaging and helpful information." Motivating millions to stay healthy Dr Graham informed that YouTube Health’s vision goes beyond merely offering information. "Our long-term vision is to transform how healthcare providers and public health organisations educate and motivate people to live healthier lives through the power of video at scale," said Dr Graham. The executive said that YouTube’s focus on video content is relevant in the Indian context. Dr Graham believes that as more Indians come online, video offers the first handshake to the world, with the ability to overcome language barriers and present even complex information in simple, easy-to-understand formats. "This is particularly valuable in India, where language diversity and varying literacy levels can sometimes pose challenges to accessing health information," he said.
