14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook already knows a great deal about you and it could soon know even more, more about your health, that is.
The social network has a lot of knowledge about its users, ranging from who your friends are, what things you like, what you did last summer, and so on. Surely, it already has some knowledge about your health status too, which can be obtained by simply analyzing the messages you post online.
Reuters reports that the company is already plotting to get involved into the field of healthcare, as per the statements of three people familiar with the matter, who chose to keep their anonymity due to the fact that the plans are obviously still a secret.
How is Facebook planning to do all this? Well, it seems that the company is looking into creating online “support communities.” These would connect Facebook users suffering from various illnesses and other issues. Of course, there are always the groups that are already active on the network, so Facebook might have drawn its inspiration from there.
There’s also a team that’s been working on “preventative care” apps which should help improve people’s lives by living more healthily.
Facebook meets with healthcare experts
The company has reportedly been holding meetings in the past several months, asking for information and opinions from medical industry experts and entrepreneurs, in order to get a better grasp at what needs to be done.
Reuters indicates that one of the catalysts behind Facebook’s new interest might be the “organ-donor status initiative.” This is a feature that was introduced back in 2012 into people’s profile pages, asking them if they were organ donors. Following the addition, over 13,000 people signed up to be organ donors in the United States, which is 21 times more than the daily average.
While Facebook may want to get involved into such a topic, there’s always the issue of privacy with this social network, so the future of the endeavor lies on how the company will handle this aspect. On the other hand, the Internet communities, both on Facebook and other sites, have shown that people are more open to the idea of sharing their health issues online, looking for other people that have gone through what they are going through and perhaps getting an opinion before actually checking in with a doctor.
This, of course, has its downsize since self-medication isn’t always advisable and neither is self-diagnosing.