Background : YouTube may have an influential role on the public’s understanding of health-related information. This study was designed to review and analyze the information available to patients on YouTube pertaining to percutaneous MitraClip procedure.
Methods: Two separate researchers queried YouTube for the term “MitraClip”. The videos from first 10 pages were reviewed and categorized according to content, number of views, “likes” and “dislikes”.
Results: Of the first 72 videos reviewed, 8 videos were categorized as patient education, 5 as advertisements, 12 as intraoperative videos, 4 as patient experiences, 17 as health care provider education including conferences, and 3 as public awareness. 24% of the videos were unrelated to MitraClip procedure (17/72) and 6 were not depicted in English language. Overall, intraoperative videos including animations of the procedure were the most viewed video type (Figure 3).
Conclusion: You Tube provides a wide range of health-related information with easy accessibility for patients and a potentially excellent source for patient education. Unfortunately the information posted is not regulated. This study shows that available information for percutaneous MitraClip procedure could be improved if authorities in the field congregated and standardized education for patients.
