The healthcare industry as a whole is experiencing an overhaul. With the imminent rise and acceptance of telehealth communications, video is at the forefront of medical innovation. But medical videos take it a step ahead – they focus on patient education.
Benefits of Video Patient Education
Adding video to patient education folders and resources can make it easier for providers to support their patients with different learning styles. Some of the benefits of health education videos include:
- Better communications: videos can help providers explain overly complex medical topics and procedures to patients.
- Improve understanding: with videos, providers can increase patient knowledge and understanding of procedures and medical topics by 83%.
- Help overcome low health literacy: about 43% of adults with low health literacy use written information. Medical videos can help overcome these barriers and even help share content and knowledge in various languages.
- Prepare patients for surgery: showing patients pre-procedural medical videos can help reduce surgery anxiety by about 22%.
- Improve patient experience: the more patients can understand their condition, procedures, and medical options, the more satisfied they will be with the care and attention they receive.
Tips for Using Medical Videos
Today, there are hundreds of companies offering medical video services. There are many more video resources available for practitioners to help their patients. But, it’s essential to keep in mind some tips for choosing the right videos:
- Make sure the videos are written to a 5th-grade reading level.
- If possible, only use videos with multiple titles and captions in various languages.
- Make sure the videos have the ability to feature closed captioning to support the hearing impaired.
- Videos should be shared via your practice’s portal, along with printed transcripts and images to support them.
The Rise of Video Content
When it comes to the type of content people consume online, video has been and will continue to be the most popular one. Today, video accounts for over 80% of online traffic. One in three people watches medical videos regularly. They use videos to learn more about their symptoms, see expectations about a procedure, and more.
Before, patients are also more likely to book an appointment after watching a medical video about their symptoms or condition. Estimates state that about 60% of patients that watch medical videos will engage with their practitioners or reach out to a medical professional as a result. All of this makes it evident that medical videos are the future of medical practice.
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Geraldine Orentas is a writer from Happy Writers, Co. in partnership with occupational therapy services provider, Burger Physical Therapy.
