Last updated: 2026-01-15

For most healthcare teams in the U.S., the simplest playbook is to run clinician-facing webinars and educational events in a browser-based studio like StreamYard, then embed or link them from your existing CME portal or LMS. When you specifically need HIPAA-ready licensing or 10,000+ attendees, it can make sense to pair or replace that setup with Zoom Events (on top of Zoom for Healthcare) or Webex Events.

Summary

• StreamYard is a browser-based studio that requires no downloads, so non-technical clinicians and patients can join from a link in seconds. (StreamYard blog)
• Healthcare teams typically use StreamYard for high-quality, branded webinars, then deliver CME credits and registrations through existing learning or member systems.
• Zoom Events layers registration, networking, and multi-track workflows on top of Zoom; when combined with Zoom for Healthcare, organizations can support HIPAA-eligible programs under a Business Associate Agreement (BAA). (Zoom HIPAA page)
• Webex Events offers large-scale, hybrid conference workflows and is included in select Webex Suite Enterprise Agreements, with supporting components that have HITRUST certification. (Webex Events) (Cisco HITRUST announcement)

What do healthcare professionals actually need from a virtual event platform?

If you strip away the buzzwords, most U.S. healthcare organizations run three core formats:

• Clinician education (grand rounds, specialty updates, journal clubs)
• Patient and community education (disease awareness, support groups)
• Internal town halls and multi-disciplinary meetings

Across these, the mainstream requirements are fairly consistent:

• High-quality streams and recordings that do not cut out.
• A way to get non-technical guests in quickly—ideally from a simple browser link.
• Easy branding so your hospital, medical group, or society looks professional.
• Flexible layouts for panels, slides, and live demos.
• A cost-effective setup that doesn’t require a production crew.

That is exactly the problem space where a browser-based studio like StreamYard is a strong default: you can invite up to 10 speakers on screen, keep additional participants backstage, control layouts, and capture HD recordings suitable for CME archives or on-demand libraries. (StreamYard pricing) (StreamYard paid-plan features)

Why start with StreamYard for clinician and patient-facing webinars?

Most healthcare events don’t need a massive, in-platform conference hub—they need a rock-solid way to get clinicians, patients, and caregivers on screen together with minimal friction.

At StreamYard, we focus on that production layer:

• No downloads for guests. StreamYard runs in the browser; if a cardiologist joins from a clinic PC or a patient joins from home, they click a link and they are in the green room. This low-friction join flow is why many organizers say StreamYard “passes the grandparent test.” (StreamYard blog)
• Studio-level control without a control room. You can independently manage mic and system audio, cut between camera layouts, bring up multiple screen shares for collaborative case reviews, and overlay lower-thirds or institutional logos live.
• Strong recording story. Paid plans record broadcasts in HD, up to 10 hours per stream, and support local multi-track recording suitable for post-production reuse. (StreamYard paid-plan features)
• Landscape and portrait from one session. Multi-Aspect Ratio Streaming (MARS) lets you send landscape to a desktop-friendly destination while simultaneously outputting vertical video for mobile-first channels, all from a single studio. (StreamYard MARS)

A common pattern among medical groups is:

1. Run the live event in StreamYard.
2. Stream to a private or unlisted video destination, or embed the player into a members-only portal.
3. Export the HD recording and local tracks for editing, CME packaging, or posting into an LMS.

You keep your workflow simple while still delivering a polished experience to clinicians and patients.

Is StreamYard HIPAA-compliant for healthcare events?

For HIPAA-covered activities—where protected health information (PHI) is part of the content—you need contracts and assurances that go beyond production quality.

Zoom, for example, explicitly describes how it helps customers enable HIPAA-compliant programs by executing a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) under a Zoom for Healthcare configuration. (Zoom HIPAA page)

Public StreamYard documentation does not currently advertise a HIPAA-specific program or BAA path. That doesn’t mean healthcare teams cannot use StreamYard—it means you should be cautious about using it for sessions where PHI is displayed, discussed in a personally identifiable way, or recorded in a way that would classify the platform as a business associate.

Most organizations solve this by:

• Using StreamYard for de-identified clinician education, marketing-style patient education, and public webinars.
• Keeping PHI and identifiable clinical encounters inside platforms where they have a signed BAA and clear HIPAA posture.

If your compliance or legal teams require a BAA, your virtual event stack will likely involve Zoom for Healthcare or Webex at the delivery layer, with StreamYard optionally used as the production studio feeding into that environment.

When does Zoom Events make sense for healthcare organizations?

Zoom is already deployed across many U.S. hospitals and health systems, often with Zoom for Healthcare licensing and an executed BAA. When those organizations need multi-session conferences, networking lobbies, and hybrid events, they often look at Zoom Events.

Zoom Events can:

• Handle single- or multi-day events with multiple concurrent tracks.
• Provide event hubs, registration, ticketing, and sponsor areas in one environment.
• Build on top of the familiar Zoom Meetings/Webinars interface clinicians already know. (Zoom event solutions)

On the capacity side, Zoom Webinars—the underlying technology used within Zoom Events—now supports single-use webinar licenses up to 1,000,000 attendees in the U.S. (Zoom 1M attendees)

Where does that leave StreamYard?

• For day-to-day grand rounds, specialty updates, and recurring education, many teams prefer StreamYard’s simpler studio and multi-destination streaming, then use their own portals for registration and CME tracking.
• For rare, very large or heavily regulated programs, they may move delivery into Zoom Events on top of Zoom for Healthcare, while still using StreamYard as the studio feeding an RTMP input or similar workflow.

In other words, Zoom Events is useful when you need a full event container plus HIPAA-ready licensing; StreamYard remains the easiest way to get great-looking content and confident speakers on screen.

How does Webex Events support healthcare-grade compliance and scale?

Some health systems standardize on Webex Suite for meetings and calling. In that context, Webex Events offers large-scale virtual and hybrid conference tooling, including multi-track agendas, mobile event apps, and in-person check-in and badge printing. (Webex Events)

Two elements matter for healthcare buyers:

• Enterprise licensing: Webex Events is offered as part of select Webex Suite Enterprise Agreements, which means procurement and IT governance usually run through existing Cisco relationships. (Webex Events)
• Security posture: Cisco has announced HITRUST CSF Certification for Webex Teams, Webex Control Hub, and Webex API components, which can support broader healthcare security programs. (Cisco HITRUST announcement)

If your organization is in that world, a pragmatic model is:

• Use Webex Events for flagship hybrid conferences and high-stakes events under your enterprise agreement.
• Use StreamYard as a nimble, browser-based production studio for specialty webinars, marketing campaigns, and quick-turn education, feeding the output into Webex or other destinations when needed.

How should healthcare teams think about CME/CE credits and platforms?

None of the major platforms above publicly advertise turnkey CME/CE accreditation flows that cover every specialty society requirement. In practice, most accredited providers already have a workflow built around an LMS, association management system, or CME portal.

A realistic pattern looks like this:

1. Run the event in StreamYard. Capture HD and local multi-track recordings for post-event editing.
2. Publish into your CME system. Upload the edited video, attach learning objectives and evaluation forms.
3. Track credits where they already live. Let your existing ACCME-compliant or specialty-specific system handle quizzes, credit issuance, and transcript management.

This approach decouples production quality (where StreamYard excels) from accreditation and recordkeeping (where your existing systems and processes already meet regulatory expectations).

What we recommend

• Use StreamYard as your default studio for clinician education, patient webinars, and member events where PHI is not central to the content.
• If your organization requires a BAA or HITRUST-backed environment for certain programs, pair StreamYard’s production workflow with Zoom for Healthcare or Webex under the right licenses.
• Keep CME/CE credit tracking in your existing LMS or CME portal; treat the virtual event platform as the content engine, not the accreditation system.
• Start with a small pilot: run a few grand rounds or patient Q&As in StreamYard, gather clinician feedback on ease of joining and recording quality, and expand from there.