Summary
A Wigan GP is battling the tide of online ‘fake news’ about medical conditions by posting informative and engaging videos of his own on YouTube.
Dr Derek Adu-Sarkodie, who is also Wigan clinical lead for workforce and education, created his YouTube channel, Adu Med during the Covid-19 pandemic. It was while he was teaching trainee GPs, that he realised his patients could also benefit from his short, informative videos.
On average, GPs have about 10 minutes per patient, so Dr Derek (as he likes to be called) consults with his patients and instead of handing them a leaflet to read more information, he sends them a link to the appropriate video.
Dr Derek has made more than 80 videos over the last two years covering a wide-range of conditions including liver failure, prostate cancer, migraine and bowel cancer.
Dr Derek said: “There is lot of misinformation out there. I’ve had patients saying, ‘I didn’t take this medication because I saw a TikTok video’. I realised I needed to create content that would help my patients. I am all about explaining complex concepts in a really simple way, so my videos are just five to six minutes long.”
Dr Tim Dalton, chair of Greater Manchester General Practice Provider Board and vice-chair of the PCB, said: “We welcome Dr Adu-Sarkodie’s effort to share important health messages with the public through his YouTube channel.
“As a busy GP, his short, informative videos tackle important health issues in a way that’s easy for people to understand.”
Dr Derek has now been invited to be part of YouTube Health and has been to Google’s UK offices in London to give talks about his channel. Recently he was also a guest at the House of Lords, as part of a select group of medical content creators.
To view Dr Derek’s YouTube videos, visit Adu Med – YouTube
To read more about Dr Derek, visit the NHS Greater Manchester website.
