YouTube videos help MS doc reach patients
He finds purpose in making information accessible 24/7.
At age 12, COLUMBUS —
Aaron Boster walked into his grandmother’s kitchen to find both her and his mother weeping.
Boster’s uncle was having problems stemming from his multiple sclerosis, a disease of the central nervous system that can cause a wide range of symptoms. But his mom and sister couldn’t reach his doctor.
“They didn’t know what to do,” recalled Boster, now 43. “And I looked at my mom and said, ‘Mom, I’m going to learn to do it better.’ Nobody should make my family feel that way. They were scared and alone, and that shouldn’t happen.”
The incident set the course for Boster’s life, specifically his career in medicine.
More than 30 years later, he sat at his living-room table in Clintonville on a recent weeknight, pressed a button on his camera and began recording.
Speaking clearly and gesturing animatedly, he looked and acted like a seasoned broadcaster as he filmed a nine-minute video, “4 Things Every Person With MS Should Be Doing.”
In the past two years, Boster has produced more than 200 such videos for his YouTube channel. And, as medical chief of neuroimmunology for the OhioHealth medical system — meaning he oversees MS care in 12 hospitals — he can reach a lot of people.
Boster has more than 6,000 YouTube subscribers, and almost all of his videos — in November and December alone, he posted 29 total — have more than 1,000 views each, with several exceeding 10,000 each.
Round-the-clock accessibility is his answer to his family’s long-ago frustration.
“I realized that if I see you (a patient) four times a year, that means that 361 days a year you still have MS and you’re nowhere near me,” he said. “So if I’m going to help you be the most awesome version of you possible despite having MS, I can’t only provide education four times a year.
“There has to be a mechanism where I can reach and help you beyond that.”
Carol Boster Kotler said she wasn’t surprised when her son went into medicine, recalling him as “an extremely inquisitive kid” with a passion for science.
She and her ex-husband, Chuck Boster, raised Aaron and their daughter, Julie, in Gahanna. They lived close to Carol’s parents, Irv and Irene Levey, who were caregivers for their son, Mark.
Boster graduated from Oberlin College and the University of Cincinnati Medical School. After several internships and residencies in Michigan, he returned to Ohio in 2008, working at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center until joining OhioHealth in 2014.
His patients say he’s personable and informal. On a recent day in his office at Riverside Methodist Hospital, he wore a gray suit with black snakeskin boots, which, he said, he wears daily.
“You can always hear him coming (because of the boots),” said Jessica Proper, 38, a Dublin resident and one of Boster’s patients. “He’s a real person, and he takes the time to listen to you.”
Boster’s informality makes his videos entertaining, Proper and other patients say. In one recent installment, the physician wore a Viking hat and a fake mustache.
“He did a live chat on New Year’s Day, and he was drinking a beer, and we had to try to guess what kind of beer he was drinking,” said patient Stephanie Covitz, 34, a Blacklick resident. “MS is a very daunting thing, and he’s so funny, it makes it much less scary.”
Boster said he makes a point to address sensitive topics that patients might not feel comfortable bringing up in appointments, such as how MS can affect a patient’s bowels, bladder and sex life.
Since he began making the videos in 2017, he has been through two cameras and is now using a third in a effort to improve their quality. He films the videos on his own time and spends time at home researching how to improve them, focusing on aspects such as lighting.