The YouTube for the Orthopedic Industry

If an image is worth a thousand words, what’s the value of a video? With mobile data becoming more affordable and many plans offering unlimited caps, online video has exploded in popularity. The offerings are no longer limited to popular social media or YouTube either. A bevy of video platforms have emerged to cater to virtually every interest across the globe. In fact, the growth has happened so quickly, it can now become a challenge to find specific content that offers real value to a certain slice of the population.
 
For example, in the orthopedic space, a doctor may want to get insight on a new procedure or technology. Determining exactly what string of keywords it takes to get to that on an enormous platform like YouTube or Vimeo can be a significant challenge on its own. It’s easy to find video comments on the latest Grammy awards, but finding a conference session on a new surgical procedure on the knee can be tricky.
 
Recognizing this, Roman Giverts came up with the idea for VuMedi, a video platform dedicated to serving the healthcare space. Giverts, who is also the firm’s CEO, took time out of his schedule during a recent conference to speak with ODT on VuMedi and the differences between his video platform and the more consumer-focused offerings available online.
 
Sean Fenske: What is VuMedi?
Roman Giverts: Often referred to as the “YouTube for Doctors,” VuMedi’s mission is to help physicians make the best care decisions through unbiased video education. VuMedi is the only comprehensive video network where doctors can learn and fully evaluate all treatment options in one place from a varietyof the most trustworthy institutions and practitioners. For industry, VuMedi provides access to physicians in an environment they trust and have incredibly high engagement with. Unlike content hosted by life science companies or other education sites that promote only paying manufacturers, VuMedi curates content from competitive hospitals, manufacturers, and key opinion leaders.
 
Key facts about VuMedi include:

• More than 250,000 physicians use the platform.
• 20,000 videos have been created by more than 5,000 healthcare leaders, hospitals, conferences, medical device companies, and pharma brands.
• Content spans many specialties, including orthopedics, cardiology, pulmonology, pediatrics, oncology, and endocrinology.
• 150 top hospitals and conferences partner with VuMedi, such as Cleveland Clinic; Mayo Clinic; Johns Hopkins; the University of California, San Francisco; NYU; and Columbia.
• 80 percent of cardiovascular and orthopedic surgeons worldwide use the platform.
• On average, a doctor watches six videos on VuMedi for over 40 minutes every month.

 
Fenske: What are the advantages of using this over another video service such as YouTube?
Giverts: Doctors typically juggle random videos from industry and conferences along with notes from presentations, news sites, and technique guides to learn and relearn treatment and procedure options. VuMedi puts all of this information into one, pressure-free and objective place so doctors can benfit in a number of ways.

• Learn from the experts in the field and interact with other physicians in real-time through webinars, comments, and private messaging.
• See what other doctors are doing and how it relates to his or her own practice in a user-friendly format.
• Disseminate their own approaches and practices to other physicians across the world.
• Access the approaches and principles without commercial bias, instead focusing on expertise from individual doctors rather than the companies, which have a vested interest in promoting their products.
• See every way of doing a procedure and compare them on their own terms.

 
The refined search capabilities and quality content from peers is what draws physicians to the platform over using YouTube where content can be created by anyone.
 
For industry, the transition to evidence-based medicine is changing the process and educational pathway a physician takes to start using a new product. The blockbuster launches of the past for new devices and drugs were focused on tracking share of voice, meaning the more marketers bombarded their target, the more their voice was heard. This left industry to rely on surface-level awareness tactics, such as banner ads. But, how physicians consume information is shifting as a result, with doctors spending more time watching online videos and 85 percent reporting taking clinical action as a result. Now, more attention is paid to thoughtful dialogues, such as long-form education that can close the gap between banner ads and practice change.
 
Industry struggles to create those thoughtful dialogues and engage physicians. VuMedi allows them to in several ways.

• Engage physicians in trusted content they want to watch. On average, a doctor watches six videos on VuMedi for over 40 minutes every month.
• Establish more credibility by shifting away from promotional messaging to educational topics.
• Capitalize on physician-to-physician engagement happening organically in a platform already reaching more than 250,000 doctors

 
Fenske: How are medical device manufacturers using VuMedi?
Giverts: Industry partners have dedicated channels on VuMedi where they use KOLs [key opinion leaders] and other credible physicians to educate others on everything from the disease or issues to directly showcase how-to videos on product use.
 
VuMedi’s success lies in its authenticity and transparency. While the industry videos are interspersed with other community videos, everything is clearly labeled. When a video is provided by a physician or hospital, it says the name of that physician or hospital, and when it’s by industry, it is identified as such.
 
Physicians will find those videos as they’re searching, browsing, and watching related content—similar to how you might find content on YouTube. They certainly don’t have to watch any of these industry videos, and we don’t have any pop-ups or pre-rolls that require advertising viewing. Our industry content is popular though; many physicians choose to watch these videos. When asked why, the main response is that it is better than meeting with a rep.
 
Physicians want to go somewhere they can look at a variety of content that’s comprehensive, offering competing and alternative viewpoints. Part of that is the point of view of industry.
 
The main type of video we see from industry are KOL videos because of the platform’s focus on peer-to-peer communication. All of our partners have some type of peer-to-peer content strategy. The other types of videos we see are case-based educational videos, best practices videos, and procedural videos. All of the content comes from a trusted authority talking about how a physician can improve their practice and treat their patients better.
 
Fenske: How can the service aid in clinical trial recruitment?
Giverts: This is one of the most common use cases for creating content on VuMedi in oncology and other device specialties. Principal Investigators are able to educate doctors on various trials and relevant topics to a trial. In certain specialties like oncology, there is a lot more optimism toward clinical trials, and thus, physicians may refer more often. Doctors know that understanding what clinical trials are available is an important part of their practice. This is also an area hospitals are intrigued by on VuMedi—the opportunity to raise awareness for trials.
 
Fenske: Does the functionality of the player allow for comments about a video? Ranking system?
Giverts: One of the biggest benefits of VuMedi is the space it creates for doctors to engage one another either one-on-one in the platform or by starting a dialogue in the comments. This allows physicians to easily seek opinions and advice from other experts they may never have had access to otherwise. We track a variety of interactions to see how a video is doing, such as saves to playlists, content ratings using the classic thumbs up feature, and more.
 
Fenske: Do all users of VuMedi need to be registered users?
Giverts: Yes. We verify all physician users.
 
Fenske: How does a company list their videos on VuMedi?
Giverts: Industry partners purchase a channel for their market segment and work with VuMedi to determine promotions. Every industry partner is given a customer success team whose sole function is to help the partner achieve their goals, best align with the platform, use best practices, make meaningful content, and integrate into the community to maximize responsiveness.
 
Fenske: Are there different “tiers” or types of accounts for those uploading videos?
Giverts: Industry can buy various types of specialty channels. For example, we have one partner with 10 specialty channels within each product group they have. Then they can purchase campaigns through various bundles we offer that optimize reach and visibility. The tactics in the bundle might include top of homepage placement, prominent browsing, search highlights, related content promotions, and email promotion.
 
Fenske: Can doctors upload videos to share with colleagues?
Giverts: Yes, any doctor that is a registered user can upload a video to share with the VuMedi community. We organize videos by specialty and tag the procedure or treatment so that videos on a certain subject can be easily found.
 
Fenske: What medical specialty areas do you offer videos on?
Giverts: We offer videos across a wide range of specialties, such as orthopedics, cardiology, pulmonology, pediatrics, oncology, and endocrinology to name a few.
 
Fenske: Do you plan to grow the specialties areas you will feature? If so, what is the timeline for that rollout?
Giverts: Relative to devices, our fastest growing and focus areas are currently colorectal, thoracic, neurosurgery, neurovascular, and wound care.
 
Fenske: Why do medical conferences post their sessions onto VuMedi?
Giverts: Medical conferences and meetings are still an integral part of the industry but facing challenges due to the growing demands on doctors that keep them from taking multiple days off to travel. Conferences are reinventing how they are reaching target audiences before, during, and after an event, and VuMedi gives them the perfect place to promote the conference, highlight key events during it, and continue to reach doctors long past the last day of the event.
 
Physicians are not spending eight hours per day on VuMedi, like they do at a conference. VuMedi engagement is very complimentary.
 
Fenske: What has been the growth experienced by VuMedi (number of users?) and what is your expectation for future growth?
Giverts: We have over 250,000 physicians from around the world on the platform, 150 hospital and conference partners, and more than 50 industry partners in device and pharma. We have nearly 1.5 million minutes of content viewed on the site across 20,000 videos, and engagement numbers for our video content continue to outperform other marketing tactics in terms of the length of attention we demand from a viewer.
 
We’ve captured the orthopedic and cardiology market well—80 percent of doctors in those specialties are on VuMedi. We cover a range of specialties now and are looking to expand into primary care next.
 
Fenske: Have you received feedback on features you are looking to include in the future? If so, what will they be?
Giverts: Our focus is on advanced recommendations and targeting, meaning we want to identify the right content for the right user so they get more value out of using the platform. We have lots of great content; now, we want to make it easier to find.
 
Fenske: What are the next steps for VuMedi? Where is it headed in the near and long-term future?
Giverts: The future is about understanding the data we generate on a daily basis on what is happening in the marketplace. By pulling the most value out of this data, we will be able to provide the best education and content to our users and create an opportunity for industry to grow their products in optimal fashion with deeper insights.