YouTube channel goes behind the scenes of USA Health’s emergency departments

A ring stuck on a swollen finger, a dislocated shoulder, a foreign body in the nose – these are a few reasons people might seek emergency treatment. They are also video topics of a popular YouTube channel that goes behind the scenes of emergency medicine to support medical education.

Larry Mellick, M.D., division chief of pediatric emergency medicine at USA Health, 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 professor and vice chair of emergency medicine at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine. “Having a real patient involved – not just a simulation or a PowerPoint presentation – is so much more powerful from an educational perspective.”

When he joined USA Health in February 2018, Mellick started a new YouTube channel. However, he couldn’t replicate the success of his existing channel, which already had a loyal following. Mellick worked with USA Health’s legal team, compliance officers, and marketing and communications to rebrand his original channel to USA Health.

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.

Dr. Larry Mellick's YouTube channel has USA Health emergency medicine videos for you to watch or subscribe.