British Medical Journal Expands Digital Footprint with New YouTube Channel

In what is a growing tide of movement by healthcare into the YouTube space, last month the presigious British Medical Journal (BMJ) started its own YouTube channel called BMJmedia and moving ahead of other important journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) offering both RSS Feeds and Podcast materials, the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) which also provides feeds and podcasts, and The Lancet which also issues an RSS Feed and has a podcast series.  JAMA in particular may suffer as the name JAMA has already been taken on YouTube for a channel.  It is also worth noting that the BMJ, like its counterparts, has begun a podcast series and feeds as well as blog services.  But it would appear they are first to the YouTube game.

Here is the description of the channel:  Published since 1840, the BMJ is an international general medical journal, published weekly in print and updated daily online.  It is among the most influential and widely read peer-reviewed general academic journals in the field of medicine in the world.  This channel showcases videos created for the BMJ.

The channel was begun December 10 and has 22 subscribers and has had over 600 viewings of videos.  The channel is very much in its infancy.  It has videos that mostly cover interviews with specific people on medical topics and there are no categorical playlists yet to help a viewer segment the video offerings in any way. 

That said, it is yet one more example of how healthcare is moving into digital - a movement that will continue in its evolution until we see videos posted of abstracts and scientific information that people can view without flying half way around the world to attend a conference. 

No one appears to be Twittering yet, despite the presence of a growing number of newspapers using Twitter to both gather and get news.  Once again, JAMA's name is already taken on Twitter. 

And JAMA, NEJM and The Lancet, if you need help figuring out your design and utlization for a YouTube channel, call me.

And if you are working in any aspect of healthcare communications, and don't subscribe to these feeds, you are way behind.