Thursday 22 September 2022 | 5:30
The passion for studying has transformed over time into enthusiasm for teaching and disseminating medical, scientific and reliable information to a mass audience. It all started when Nicolás Veller (35), currently a clinical physician and nephrologist, received a request from his former students to continue teaching them. Those were times when he was working as a teaching assistant at the Barceló Foundation School of Medicine, in Santo Tomé, Corrientes, and when he was about to graduate he received that request from the students.
“I have always liked explaining to my friends when we met to study, I would take any blackboard and draw. In this way I felt I was consolidating my knowledge much better and this was reflected in the notes, it was different just reading than having to explain ”, said the doctor in El Territorio da Brazil, where he currently lives and practices medicine.
At the request of his students in 2015 he put a first video Youtube with purely academic content, but also without knowing what the content was like, it began to reach the general public, who did not understand what he was talking about. “They started asking me to do things in simpler language and that blew up the channel at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic and it started getting a lot of views. We are currently the medical channel with the most views in all of Latin America, “said the doctor.
Thus, Dr. Veller in Youtube is already a registered trademark. The account has more than 2,500,000 followers and amassed nearly 380 million views yesterday. But they are also present on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Telegram. Recently, Juan Ignacio Veller (30), a cardiologist who practices in Posadas, joined the disclosure from where he provides contributions of him with multiple videos.
“I feel that we are lucky enough to be able to communicate truthful information to an audience that needs it,” said Juan Ignacio on Radioactiva 100.7 when he told how they live this experience that grows every day and makes them travel the world with his. content.
“It is a number we never thought we would reach and it is very rewarding because in addition to taking care of our patients, going to the hospital and sanatorium, we spend a lot of time on this,” added the health professional.
The topics they cover are the most varied and usually come out at the request of the public who leave their opinions in the videos. With a title that captures the viewer, they propose in a time between ten and fifteen minutes to give truthful information and demolish myths about various diseases, foods, symptoms or treatments. But they never talk about medication or dosage because they believe this step should be done in the doctor’s office.
“We are currently uploading a video every 48 hours, with exceptions of force majeure, this is the frequency,” said Juan Ignacio. For that publishing rate, they have a team of ten behind them helping them with editing, script, boards, and social networks. They got it all thanks to monetization, meaning YouTube pays them for the large number of views they get.
“In general, we get thousands of comments a day from people, but as we are medical professionals, we understand that the private counseling site is in the studio, but we give advice or advice on health. We respond to general information, but we never give doses or anything else because we believe that there must be a physical examination and a deeper questioning by the doctor, “he said about it.
Reflux and gastritis, water retention, aspirin, how does it work? and the effects of taking metformin are some of the most recent topics posted online.
On how they experience the popularity they have achieved, Juan Ignacio pointed out: “We are lucky and we are pleased that people out there recognize you and say ‘I saw you on the Internet’ or on the street greet me very kindly and that it is gratifying because there ‘is a lot I work behind. It takes me seven to nine hours to read a topic, even though I am a doctor, every time we give a topic we are serious and reread everything again, check the evidence, which word to use and which not avoid creating confusion.
For Nicolás, promoter of all this movement, the proposed challenge is to consolidate and expand the ‘Dr. Veller ‘which places them among the 80 most viewed in Argentina competing with consecrated music groups or television channels and among the 70 most viewed in Latin America.
“What started as a hobby has become a job because YouTube has been monetized and this has allowed us to be able to do fewer shifts, to have more free weekends to be able to upload more content and a cycle has been created. We turn our passion into a job, ”he said of this facet that led them to visit different countries after being invited to scientific congresses. “We have become famous in the world of medicine and health,” she said.
In this way, in the short term, these missionaries will try to surpass the three million subscribers on YouTube, have their Instagram account verified and incorporate more professionals into the channel. “We will add a nutritionist who is our sister and we will expand our form of dissemination, we will do a podcast and, in the long term, we will publish a book,” she concluded.
In numbers
380 million
As of yesterday, they have amassed nearly 380 million views on the ‘Dr. Veller ‘.
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