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| Larry Mellick, M.D., professor and vice chair of emergency medicine at the USA College of Medicine, is the creator of a YouTube channel for medical education. |
Larry Mellick, M.D., professor and vice chair of emergency medicine at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine, created the channel in 2010. At the time, he worked at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. The videos served as an additional resource to teach medical students and residents about scenarios they might encounter in the emergency department.
“It became a much better way to teach procedures,” said Mellick, who also serves as division chief of pediatric emergency medicine at USA Health. “Having a real patient involved – not just a simulation or a PowerPoint presentation – is so much more powerful from an educational perspective.”
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| Screenshot of Dr. Larry Mellick's YouTube channel |
Before being uploaded to YouTube, each video is vetted through a peer and compliance review process, Mellick said. In addition, all patients and family members featured in the videos have given signed consent to be filmed and have their stories shared.
“We greatly respect and care about our patients’ rights and privacy,” Mellick said. “People are making personal sacrifices to allow these videos to be made for education purposes. I feel sincere gratitude to patients who have made that sacrifice because of the impact it has had on learners all over the world.”
The videos are popular with a spectrum of learners including medicine, paramedicine, nursing, respiratory therapy, coding and billing, as well as practicing clinicians, Mellick said.
“The importance is to be real. This is real medicine,” he said.
Mellick said the videos also attract viewers who are searching for information about a recent diagnosis or who are awaiting a procedure in the emergency department.
“Patients will go to YouTube and look up what their doctor is talking about following initial conversations,” he said. “They also search for answers about a specific diagnosis and related treatment.”
Mellick said the videos have even saved some lives. “I personally have had several patients reach out to me in the comments and I advised them that they needed to go to the ER immediately. A week or two later I found out through the patient that they had undergone emergency surgery,” he said. “I have also had occasional testimonials from physicians about how the information in the videos helped them save a life.”
The channel has 333,000 subscribers, and 26 videos uploaded to the channel have more than 1 million views each. The channel’s most popular video to date demonstrates the management of a nail gun injury. Appropriately titled “Finger Nail,” the video has more than 22 million views.
Mellick said the videos have a broad appeal because of the lay public’s fascination with medicine and the videos’ human interest component. He has seen an increase in views over the past two months, which he attributes to people being at home and watching more videos during the coronavirus quarantine.
The channel is monetized, and Mellick donates all proceeds to the USA Health Emergency Medicine Residency Program to support training and education in emergency medicine.
Mellick edits the videos on his own time, usually late at night. “Sometimes I need a break from my academic endeavors to explore my artistic side,” he said.
Visit Dr. Larry Mellick's YouTube channel to watch or subscribe to USA Health emergency medicine training videos.
