When you look for high-quality videos about diabetes health topics, it’s frustrating and often unsuccessful. Yet finding the right information at the right time is critical to staying in control of your health.
A friend of mine with deep ties to the diabetes community, Dr. Dirk Boecker, is developing a new medical video portal: Lucy’s Cabinet — Top Medical Videos. He has brought together experts in the field of diabetes to select the highest-quality videos across a wide spectrum of diabetes topics.
Dr. Boecker is inviting us to beta test the portal. I checked out the portal, saw some of my favorite videos there, and even suggested a new category, a passion of mine, as you know — low-carb.
Lucy’s Cabinet has an innovative method of improving search by matching the viewer with the kind of videos they like to watch. I took the unique visual assessment — using just shapes and colors — and was pleasantly surprised by the accurate and interesting “Video Type” it came up with for me.
Who is the Lucy in the site’s name? Dr. Boecker told me that he chose the name because Lucy in the Charlie Brown comic strip “knows everything.”
If you’ve ever tried to learn something from a video and wondered, “Is he talking to me?!” – you’ll understand why matching video styles to individual preferences is such a great idea. That means that if I prefer to learn from experts, those are the videos that show up first in the search results. If I prefer humor, social, discussion, debate… all these options and more are part of this innovative, smart search system.
Getting involved: sharing and moderating
I like how easy it is to suggest new videos for the portal. In fact, the whole portal has an open design encouraging new ideas for categories, search terms, and videos. And, community members who are passionate about video for people with diabetes can apply to become moderators, and help select and approve videos.
Another way of getting involved is the intuitive video rating system. The portal allowed me to communicate multiple opinions. I could choose any or all of 5 positive and 3 negative ratings, and the icons steered me away from being judgmental and toward a more nuanced recommendation to leave for others.
The site also lets you rank different aspects of the videos with a completely original approach. Instead of a binary (like/don’t like) system, the portal allows you to select multiple opinions about each video.
What’s the long-term plan for the portal?
Lucy’s Cabinet is part of Dr. Boecker’s larger mission to help large groups of people with chronic disease manage their daily challenges with ever greater success. Lucy’s Cabinet will grow to provide a wide variety of scientifically accurate videos, all sorted to fit the viewer’s personality type.
When I spoke with Dr. Boecker, he said, “I’d like to make sure that someone with a new diagnosis can come to Lucy’s Cabinet for support and accurate information every day — between one doctor’s visit and the next. I’d also like to leave that person inspired, relieved, enlightened, or delighted, by matching videos to the way they like to learn. We’re going to make sure we cover a wide array of topics to support people with diabetes at any stage in their daily effort to feel great, and I look forward to working with the diabetes community to make that happen.”
How can you participate in the beta test?
You can beta test Lucy’s Cabinet by clicking on the link below. When you register, for the access code enter Boulder2014, then your email address, and whatever you want as your username and password. You will have the opportunity to search for topics of interest to you, rate videos you find, and suggest videos that you feel should be added to the portal. The beta test is a great time to suggest new videos, categories, and other ideas. To participate in the beta test and help improve the site for our community, click here: https://lucy.video/profile/signup/?utm_campaign=dm
This article is based on an earlier version of my article published by HealthCentral.
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Lucy’s cabinet asks for an access code before I can register. Where can I find an access code?
The access code is Boulder2014 and it’s in the last paragraph of the article, Gary. It works. But we are just in the process of revising the article to show a new, easier way to get into Lucy’s Cabinet. It’s https://lucy.video/profile/signup/?utm_campaign=dm