YouTube first aid searches will now show verified medical tutorials

Those searching YouTube for emergency first aid tutorials will no longer have to scroll through pages of videos and skip through ads to find life-saving information.

In a new addition to the site’s other health content like health labels and crisis resource panels, the website will now prominently display authoritative medical information to the top of search results in order to facilitate speedier searches for things like CPR tutorials and provide viewers with quick and simple first aid advice.

The “information shelves” will appear for a variety of search terms in both English and Spanish, Youtube explains, including:

• CPR

• Choking / heimlich

• Bleeding

• Heart attack

• Stroke

• Seizure

• Opioid overdose

YouTube also partnered with medical center Mass General Brigham, the Mexican Red Cross, and the American Heart Association to create a series of pinned videos that provide information on how to perform CPR, how to stop bleeding, and how to help someone who is overdosing, the site also announced on Wednesday.

YouTube is also hosting the American Heart Association’s new, free CPR course, which provides structured CPR learning videos to viewers without a medical background.

“We want to help save lives and prevent bad first aid techniques that can be performed without the right medical knowledge,” wrote Ana Robles Quijano, the Mexican Red Cross’ national fundraising Coordinator, in YouTube’s blog post.

“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,” wrote Comilla Sasson, vice president of health science for the American Heart Association.

YouTube says it will continue to add health informational shelves in a variety of languages and regions around the world, potentially with the help of the site’s new AI dubbing tool Aloud. According to the announcement, Mass General Brigham has already used Aloud to translate its tutorials into Spanish.

The company says these efforts are to both address the pertinent need for reliable medical information — perhaps a response to growing medical misinformation on the platform — and to grow YouTube’s community of “authoritative health creators.”

“Today’s announcement is 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,” wrote Dr. Garth Graham, YouTube’s director and global head off healthcare and public health partnerships. “We’re committed to harnessing the power of video to make public health information truly public.”