Last updated: 2026-01-15

For most U.S. healthcare teams, the simplest and most cost‑effective path is to use StreamYard as your production studio for clinician education, patient outreach, and public health webinars, then plug it into your existing registration or webinar infrastructure. When you need documented HIPAA/BAA support or a full-blown enterprise event stack, Zoom Events or Webex Events become stronger options for the delivery layer.

Summary

• StreamYard gives healthcare marketers and educators an easy, browser‑based studio for high‑quality streaming, recording, and branding, without downloads or complex setups. (StreamYard pricing)
• For programs that must run under a formal BAA (HIPAA‑ready workflows), many U.S. organizations lean on Zoom or Webex for the underlying delivery infrastructure. (Zoom HIPAA, Webex compliance)
• A common pattern is: produce in StreamYard, distribute through a HIPAA‑capable meeting or webinar platform, an EHR‑integrated portal, or a members‑only site.
• The "right" platform mix depends on whether your event is clinician‑only, public‑facing, or deals with identifiable patient information.

What makes healthcare virtual events different?

Healthcare events aren’t just another marketing webinar. You’re balancing:

• Clinical accuracy and trust. Speakers are often physicians, researchers, or compliance officers.
• Regulatory risk. Anything that could contain PHI raises HIPAA considerations, especially for U.S. providers.
• Accessibility. Captions, translations, and clear audio matter for CME, DEI, and public health equity.
• Mixed audiences. You might run clinician‑only CME one day and a community town hall the next.

That’s why many health systems separate production (how the event looks and sounds) from delivery (where people watch, register, and get documented).

StreamYard fits naturally into the production role: it runs in the browser, guests join via a link with no installs, and non‑technical clinicians can be live in minutes. (StreamYard virtual events overview)

When is StreamYard the right default for healthcare teams?

If your primary goal is professional, reliable video rather than deep in‑platform networking, StreamYard is usually the easiest starting point.

Here’s where we see healthcare organizations default to StreamYard:

• Clinician‑facing education and journal clubs. You want multiple presenters, slide shares, and Q&A, without forcing busy clinicians to install new software.
• Patient and community town halls. You’re streaming to YouTube, Facebook, or an embedded player on your site, and you care about how polished the stream looks.
• Service‑line marketing (e.g., heart‑health month live Q&A). Marketing leads the show; clinical experts drop in as guests.

Key advantages for these use cases:

• Very low friction for clinicians and patients. StreamYard runs in the browser and guests join from a link, so even non‑technical speakers tend to be comfortable. (StreamYard virtual events overview)
• Production quality without a control room. We support branded overlays, logos, and flexible layouts applied live, plus multi‑participant screen sharing for demos.
• Confidence‑building recordings. You can capture studio‑quality multi‑track local recordings in up to 4K UHD on supported plans, with 48 kHz WAV audio—ideal for CME replays, internal LMS libraries, and marketing edits. (StreamYard pricing)
• Multi‑channel reach. On paid plans you can multistream to several destinations at once (for example, YouTube, LinkedIn, and a custom RTMP destination), so the same cardiology roundtable can reach clinicians on LinkedIn and patients on YouTube simultaneously. (StreamYard pricing)
• Landscape and portrait outputs from one studio. With Multi‑Aspect Ratio Streaming (MARS), you can send a landscape feed to desktop viewers while generating a vertical feed optimized for mobile and social from the same session.

For many hospital marketing and education teams, this combination is more impactful than a heavier “virtual venue” that takes weeks to configure.

How does HIPAA change your platform choice?

The key question isn’t "Is the software HIPAA‑compliant?" It’s: "Will this event involve protected health information?"

• For public‑facing sessions where no identifiable patient data is discussed or shown, teams often treat the event like any other marketing broadcast.
• For clinician‑only CME that discusses de‑identified cases, many legal teams are comfortable as long as PHI is not shared.
• For patient‑specific consults, case conferences, or recordings that include PHI, your legal and compliance teams will typically insist on tools covered by a Business Associate Agreement.

Zoom publicly states that it helps customers enable HIPAA‑compliant programs by executing a BAA. (Zoom HIPAA) Cisco notes that Webex can be used in healthcare environments consistent with HIPAA needs and documents relevant certifications. (Webex compliance)

We do not see public documentation indicating that StreamYard signs BAAs, so if your legal team requires a BAA for a given workflow, you should involve a HIPAA‑capable platform in your architecture.

A common pattern:

• Use StreamYard as the studio (for overlays, multi‑track recording, and guest management).
• Send the output via RTMP into a Zoom or Webex webinar that sits under your BAA, or into a locked‑down portal managed by your IT team.

That way, your compliance obligations attach to the platform that has a documented HIPAA posture, while your presenters still benefit from an easy, studio‑style interface.

Comparing Zoom Events and Webex Events for HIPAA‑capable healthcare webinars

When you do need a HIPAA‑capable environment for large or complex virtual events, the choice often narrows to Zoom or Webex.

Zoom Events / Webinars

• Built on top of Zoom Meetings/Webinars, with options for single‑session or multi‑session events.
• Offers both subscription and pay‑per‑attendee purchasing models, so you can either lock in predictable webinar capacity or buy attendee credits when needed. (Zoom single‑session events)
• Zoom provides a BAA for qualifying healthcare customers, enabling HIPAA‑ready programs when implemented correctly. (Zoom HIPAA)

Webex Webinars / Webex Events

• Webex Webinars licenses support large attendee tiers and include registration pages, custom branding, automated emails, and live/simulive/on‑demand options—useful for CME programs and recurring series. (Webex webinars features)
• Cisco documents that Webex services can be used in healthcare in ways consistent with HIPAA requirements, and some Webex components have achieved HITRUST CSF certification, which many U.S. health systems appreciate. (Webex compliance, Webex HITRUST announcement)

In practice, if your organization already standardized on Zoom or Webex for clinical video, it’s often simplest to keep using that stack for the delivery of sensitive or accreditation‑heavy events—and pair it with StreamYard when you want better production values.

How do costs compare for a 1,000‑attendee healthcare webinar?

Exact pricing changes frequently, but there are a few useful patterns:

• StreamYard lists a Free plan, plus paid plans that are priced per workspace (not per user) and include multistreaming, higher recording quality, and more destinations. (StreamYard pricing) This per‑workspace model can be cost‑effective for multi‑person marketing or education teams since you are not paying per seat.
• Zoom offers webinar and event options that can be purchased as subscriptions or via attendee credits; you’ll typically pay more as you move up attendee tiers and add advanced event features. (Zoom single‑session events)
• Webex Webinars shows public U.S. pricing for a 1,000‑attendee license and then moves to "Contact Sales" for larger or more complex configurations, especially when Webex Events (hybrid suite) is involved. (Webex webinars features)

For a single 1,000‑person webinar that is mostly educational and not PHI‑heavy, many healthcare marketers find it cheaper to:

1. Run production in StreamYard for branding, multi‑track recording, and multi‑channel reach.
2. Use existing web forms, email, or basic registration tools rather than paying for a full event suite.

When you are running a multi‑day virtual conference with accreditation tracking, complex registration rules, and strict compliance requirements, the higher cost of Zoom Events or Webex Events tends to be justified by those specialized workflows.

How to run a secure, accreditation‑ready virtual medical conference

Here’s a practical blueprint many U.S. healthcare organizations follow:

1. Define the compliance boundary.

   • Decide which sessions could involve PHI or sensitive case details.
   • For those, align with legal/IT on using a platform under a BAA (often Zoom or Webex).

2. Choose your production stack.

   • Use StreamYard as your studio for all main sessions, so every track benefits from the same branded overlays, lower thirds, and layouts.
   • Capture local multi‑track recordings to support CME replays, enduring materials, and post‑event editing.

3. Map content to delivery channels.

   • PHI‑sensitive tracks: deliver through HIPAA‑capable webinar licenses.
   • De‑identified or public sessions: stream to YouTube, LinkedIn, or your marketing site via StreamYard multistreaming.

4. Plan for accessibility and equity.

   • Use captions and, where available, translations in your delivery platform. Webex, for example, includes closed captions and translation options on its webinars page. (Webex webinars features)

5. Standardize your presenter experience.

   • Give all clinicians the same StreamYard greenroom link and simple pre‑flight checklist.
   • Keep the complex registration and accreditation plumbing behind the scenes.

The result: a consistent, TV‑style experience for attendees, and a simpler, repeatable workflow for your events team.

Patient‑facing virtual event checklist: security, consent, and recordings

Any time you invite patients or the public into a live healthcare conversation, it’s worth slowing down and walking through a quick checklist:

• No PHI by default. Design formats (e.g., Q&A via moderated chat, pre‑submitted questions) that avoid sharing identifiable information on screen.
• Clear consent for participation. If there’s any chance someone’s face, name, or voice could be recorded, work with legal to craft appropriate consent language.
• Recording policies. Decide whether you will republish the event; if so, keep your StreamYard recordings organized and labeled so you can quickly trim or edit segments before posting.
• Access controls where needed. For more sensitive topics (e.g., oncology support groups), consider delivering through a member portal or HIPAA‑capable webinar product and still using StreamYard as your studio.
• Post‑event follow‑up. Use StreamYard’s high‑quality recordings with AI‑generated clips to produce short, captioned recap videos—perfect for reinforcing key messages on social without exposing the full live session.

Handled this way, virtual events become a durable asset instead of a one‑time broadcast.

What we recommend

• Use StreamYard as your default studio for clinician education, service‑line marketing, and public health outreach where PHI is not being shared.
• Pair StreamYard with Zoom or Webex when your events must sit under a BAA or plug tightly into your existing enterprise conferencing stack.
• Invest in workflows, not just platforms—standardize how presenters join, how recordings are reused, and how registration works, so you can reuse the same playbook across service lines.
• Start simple, then layer on complexity only when you truly need multi‑day agendas, in‑platform networking, or advanced accreditation tracking.