Virginia Chachati

If you’re a healthcare professional, scientist or researcher and want to make YouTube videos to share your health knowledge with patients and the public, but you’re not quite sure where to start, then this channel is for you. In this video I will introduce who I am, why I’m starting this channel, what’s coming up next and how to join the community.

So, I’m Virginia Chachati and I’ve been a UK registered pharmacist since 2014. I worked in community pharmacies in London from 2008 to 2020, and since then I became a video content creator, medical writer and clinical content reviewer. I specialise in creating health information resources for patients and the public. And I occasionally create resources for healthcare professionals too. 

Over the years I’ve had the privilege of working with the WHO, NHS, UKHSA, DHSC and PIF in the UK to produce videos for patients and the public. I’ve even reviewed pages for the NHS dot UK website!

I’ve run workshops for the WHO Fides health video creator community, coached doctors to help them launch their own YouTube channels, and taught medical students at Bristol University how to create health information videos.

I have two YouTube channels which are part of the YouTube Partner Program (don’t worry if you’re not sure what that is, I will explain in a future video!)

The first channel is Pharmacist Virginia, where I publish health information videos for patients and the public. The second channel is Write Clinic where I publish videos for healthcare professionals and scientists who want to become medical writers and get better at communicating health information, essentially, “use their words to help people with their health”. I do have a third channel I’m working on called the International Medical Writers Association.

I’ve also been in the YouTube Health community since March 2023, which is when I first met the NHS team. I’ve attended all the YouTube Health courses and London events to connect with people, and I’m grateful to say that some of them have become very close friends.

So why did I start this channel? I’ve got three main reasons. 

Number one is enabling more people to learn how to create videos so they can share their health knowledge with patients and the public. This helps people understand what you do as a healthcare professional, scientist or researcher, and means you can develop trust with an audience that will then listen to you and be guided by you instead of someone else on the internet who wants to take advantage of them.

This brings me onto reason number two which is defending science and evidence-based healthcare on the internet – because there are people out there creating videos and taking advantage of vulnerable people who are feeling unwell and looking for help with their health. They might end up spending money on things that won’t help them, or they might act on information that makes them feel even more unwell. I believe that if there are more of us out there who want to help rather than harm people, then hopefully it will make the world a better place.

Number three is giving back to the community that has supported me over the years and expanding the community, because, without trying to sound too cliche, we are really all in this together. Patients and the public are not going to stop watching videos on the internet, so we need to be there for them, but we also need a space for us to ask questions, talk about what’s working or not working, and to celebrate our work helping people.

Ok so what’s coming up next? I will be sharing videos over the coming weeks to help you get started with your YouTube channel, including everything from what equipment you need, disclaimers you may want to consider, and how to publish a video on YouTube. I might invite some guests to chat about why and how they create their health information videos too.

You can join the free LinkedIn community by clicking the link in the video description box below. I’ll be posting updates and free resources there for you.

Now there’s just one more thing I need to say before you go: This channel is not about how to make money on YouTube or how to start a YouTube channel to create a business around it or how to use YouTube to market your clinic to find clients or brand deals. This channel is strictly about how to create helpful health information videos for patients and the public. 

If you would like to contact me for any reason, please go to my website virginia chachati dot com.

Thank you for watching 🙂