The internet is a cornucopia of free, on demand medical information from the comfort of home. In the era of COVID, with reduced patient-physician contact, and telehealth consultations, patients can seek medical knowledge and information from external resources to bridge the disparity in communication1. Patients are seeking further information on the internet, particularly the audio-visual platform YouTube2. It is proposed approximately 80% of patients will utilise the internet for medical information, and 60% of all videos on the internet are on the platform YouTube. Appropriate...

YouTube was utilised to search for common musculoskeletal procedures including “facet joint injection”, “knee injection” and “shoulder injection”. The first thirty videos returned for each search were assessed for suitability as it was deemed this was likely to encompass a patient search results as average user’s will only assess the first 5 search results 3. 90 total videos were identified, and after exclusion 51 were included for analysis by three independent reviewers. Data extracted from the videos included video authorship, year published, number of views...

Of the 51 videos analysed, 88% were authored by a medical doctor, and the average number of views were 67,552. The overall video quality and reliability was poor. The mean DISCERN score was 32.78 (<39 = poor). The mean JAMA score was 1.79 (<3 = low quality) and the GQS was 2.39 (<3 = poor). As per DISCERN standards 24.18% of videos were very poor, 46.70% were poor, 26.79% were fair, 2.61% were good, and 0% were excellent. There was no significant difference in quality...

YouTube is a popular medium for individuals seeking health related information, however, it provides substandard information for patient education on three commonly performed radiological guided musculoskeletal procedures; failing to meet benchmark criteria. Radiologists and referring physicians should avoid the recommendation of YouTube as an education aid at this time, as it may misinform patients and provide misconceptions with altered expectations.

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