YouTube on Monday rolled out a new program to help nonprofit organizations create educational videos about health inequities in mental health, maternal care and health access.
In collaboration with the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), YouTube launched the program, called THE-IQ – Tackling Health Equity through Information Quality, which brings together organizations supporting underrepresented and under-resourced communities.
YouTube and KFF will provide resources, such as seed funding and video production expertise, to The Loveland Foundation, the National Birth Equity Collaborative (NBEC) and the Health Equity Leadership & Exchange Network at the Satcher Health Leadership Institute to bring their voices and perspectives to audiences on YouTube, Garth Graham, M.D., director and global head of healthcare and public health at Google, which owns YouTube, wrote in a blog post about the initiative.
KFF will work with The Loveland Foundation, NBEC and Satcher Health Leadership Institute to conceptualize and produce video series focused on specific areas of interest and specialization. The Loveland Foundation will focus on mental health access for Black women and girls; Satcher Health Leadership Institute will focus on the root causes or upstream determinants and fundamental drivers of health inequities, including data challenges and opportunities. And the NBEC’s focus is tied to improving the health outcomes of Black birthing people.
Production will take place this month with videos planned for release in November.
Doctors, nurses and public health professionals have studied a wide range of nonmedical factors that can impact people’s health like access to housing, food security, education and income.
Information also should be viewed as a determinant of health, Graham wrote. "Equitable access to high-quality information allows folks to make smart decisions about their own health—and it’s something we want to provide outside of the limited opportunities physicians have with people in the exam room," he said.
The initiative was announced at Google's Health Equity Summit this week, an event that brings together researchers, policymakers, health equity experts and professionals both inside and outside of Google to discuss pressing health equity issues.
KFF's social impact team leads creative strategy, content development and media placement, working to provide accessible facts and dispel misinformation about important health issues facing underserved communities.
"Leveraging their proven track record in using video to scale health communication messages, KFF will provide hands-on production coordination for the participating organizations in THE-IQ. They will also provide access to their in-house experts across policy analysis, polling and social impact media campaigns to help each organization develop their unique voice on YouTube," according to Graham.