Trained and licensed healthcare providers can now make an application to have panels added to their videos that will help them be identified as credible and reliable health information sources.

“This is a big step towards helping people more easily find and connect with content that comes from the extraordinary community of healthcare professionals on YouTube,” the company stated.

Health professionals include doctors, nurses, lab technicians, psychologists, and therapists who produce health-related content.

The verification program will also enable the licensed providers to have their videos added to health content shelves /carousels which contain information on certain medical conditions. The carousel is named “From health sources “and shows at the top of search results.

Previously the features were available to government entities, educational institutions, public health departments, and hospitals.

The YouTube company has now invited private and independent health content creators to apply for this program.

This move is aimed at curbing disinformation and fake news surrounding critical health-related content.

Certified channels spreading disinformation,  will receive a guideline strike or have their content removed from the App.

“If a channel that is eligible for these features receives a Community Guidelines strike or has content removed for violating our policies they will lose their eligibility. Channels can reapply in 90 days if the Community Guidelines issues have been resolved,” Dr.Garth Graham, global head of YouTube Health.

YouTube will be regulated by guidelines of the World Health OrganizationNational Academy of Medicine and the Council of Medical Specialty Societies in the approval of credible health-related content.

Requirements for content creators applying for this certification include;

•Be primarily health content creators on their channels.

•Show proof of being licensed medical professionals 

•Have a minimum of 2000 watch hours of public videos in the previous 12 months.

The program is being rolled out in the US and Germany first.