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Dr. YouTube: A Snapshot of Credential Disclosure by Health Care Professionals
Kyle Carlson1, Beverly Ejiofor, Serena Dow
1Mr. Carlson: Medical Student, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, George Washington University, Washington, DC. Mr. Ejiofor: Medical Student, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, George Washington University, Washington, DC. Mr. Dow: Medical Student, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, George Washington University, Washington, DC. Mr. Kind: Associate Dean for Clinical Education, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, George Washington University, Washington, DC, and Children's National Medical Center, Washington, DC. Dr. Chretien: Associate Dean for Medical Student Affairs, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.
Introduction:
YouTube is a popular source of health care information for consumers. The use of "Dr" or "Doctor" in a channel name is a way contributors establish expertise. The current study sought to understand the degree by which popular YouTube channels belonging to individuals who self-identify as doctors disclose their credentials and the nature of their disclosures.
Methods:
Two raters extracted descriptive characteristics from the most viewed public YouTube channel names meeting keyword search criteria of "Doctor" and "Dr". Channel-level disclosure was captured by examining a channel's "About" section. Video-level disclosure was captured by watching the first 2 minutes of the five most viewed videos from each channel.
Results:
Forty-eight channels (45.7%; 48/105) disclosed degree, 60 channels (57.1%; 60/105) disclosed specialty, and 26 channels (24.8%; 26/105) disclosed the level of training. Two hundred thirty-six videos (46.6%; 236/506) disclosed degree, 201 videos (39.7%; 201/506) disclosed specialty, and 81 videos (16%; 81/506) disclosed the level of training.
Discussion:
Our findings suggest that the most viewed YouTube health channels and videos demonstrate inconsistent credential disclosure, occurring less than half of the time. Current professional guidance from licensing boards on social media encourages transparency around expertise and credential sharing. In addition, it remains unclear what guidance other health care professionals receive about disclosure practices online. Future recommendations and training to health care professionals should include explicit language for transparent disclosure of credentials.
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