Skip to main content
Learn more about advertising with us.

Introducing THE-IQ: Tackling Health equity with YouTube Health and Kaiser Family Foundation

For many years, doctors, nurses and public health professionals have studied a wide range of non-medical factors that can impact people’s health. These are called social determinants of health, and they can include a variety of factors like access to housing, food security, education and income.

But there’s another area that we also want to focus on: information as a determinant of health. Equitable access to high-quality information allows folks to make smart decisions about their own health — and it’s something we want to provide outside of the limited opportunities physicians have with people in the exam room.

That’s why YouTube Health is launching THE-IQ – tackling health equity through Information Quality, a new program in partnership with KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) that was announced at the annual Google Health Equity Summit. THE-IQ brings together the work of three organizations that serve underrepresented and / or under-resourced communities to bring their voices and perspectives to audiences on YouTube.

Under THE-IQ, KFF will work with The Loveland Foundation, National Birth Equity Collaborative (NBEC) and Satcher Health Leadership Institute to conceptualize and produce video series that examine health equity through the lens of the respective areas of focus of the three organizations: mental health, maternal health, and healthcare access. Production will take place this month with videos planned for release in November.

The Social Impact team at KFF leads creative strategy, content development and media placement, working to provide accessible facts and dispel misinformation about important health issues facing underserved communities. Leveraging their proven track record in using video to scale health communication messages, KFF will provide hands-on production coordination for the participating organizations in THE-IQ. They will also provide access to their in-house experts across policy analysis, polling and social impact media campaigns to help each organization develop their unique voice on YouTube.

Each organization will create videos on specific areas of interest and specialization: The Loveland Foundation will focus on mental health access for Black women and girls, Satcher Health Leadership Institute will focus on the root causes or upstream determinants and fundamental drivers of health inequities, including data challenges and opportunities. And the National Birth Equity Collaborative’s focus is tied to improving the health outcomes of Black birthing people.

THE-IQ is the latest effort from YouTube Health to reimagine how health information is shared — working between health authorities, creative digital content creators and medical experts to make the most of what digital video can offer.