YouTube, KFF partnering on health equity streaming content
KFF will work with organizations to produce videos examining equity through the lens of mental health, maternal health and access.
Photo: Luis Alvarez/Getty Images
YouTube and the Kaiser Family Foundation are joining forces on a new program geared toward nonprofit organizations, with an emphasis on creating educational videos about inequities in healthcare, including behavioral health and maternal care.
The Tackling Health Equity through Information Quality program, or THE-IQ, brings together the work of three organizations that serve underrepresented or under-resourced communities to bring their voices and perspectives to audiences on YouTube.
Under THE-IQ, KFF will work with The Loveland Foundation, National Birth Equity Collaborative and Satcher Health Leadership Institute to conceptualize and produce video series that examine health equity through the lens of the respective areas of focus of the three organizations: mental health, maternal health and healthcare access.
Production will take place this month, with videos planned for release in November.
WHAT'S THE IMPACT
The Social Impact team at KFF leads creative strategy, content development and media placement, attempting to provide accessible facts and dispel misinformation about various health issues facing underserved communities.
Leveraging its background in using video to scale health communication messages, KFF will provide hands-on production coordination for the participating organizations in THE-IQ. The organization will also provide access to its in-house experts across policy analysis, polling and social impact media campaigns to help each organization develop a unique voice on YouTube.
Each organization will create videos on specific areas of interest and specialization. The Loveland Foundation will focus on mental health access for Black women and girls, while 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 National Birth Equity Collaborative's focus is tied to improving the health outcomes of Black people who are giving birth.
On its official blog, YouTube said it wants to focus on information as a social determinant of health.
"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," the company wrote.
THE LARGER TREND
Health equity has also been a focus for government health officials. At the HIMSS22 annual conference in Orlando, Florida, in March, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said data exchange is the key to achieving equity, as it's needed to understand "gaps in the system."
Technology can help in implementing six pillars, she said, which are: addressing health disparities, building on the Affordable Care Act, engaging partners and communities served, driving innovation to tackle health system challenges and promote value-based care, protecting program sustainability, and fostering a positive workplace and workforce.
Twitter: @JELagasse
Email the writer: jeff.lagasse@himssmedia.com
