On Monday October 28, 2019, Facebook announced that it will now let users choose to get personalised reminders about upcoming healthcare checkups and vaccinations. Reported by The Verge, the social media giants Preventive Health tool “focuses on getting people information about cancer screenings, heart checkups, and flu vaccines — all measures that could hopefully help people catch deadly conditions long before they become lethal”.
Let’s say you’re 52 years old,” – Facebook’s head of health care research, Freddy Abnousi tells The Verge. “One of the things that will come to you — based on the American Cancer Society’s recommendations — is that you should have a colorectal cancer screening.”
“The app will then give you more information about what kinds of tests are available, from a colonoscopy to a stool test or a CT scan. [Hopefully] users will then take what they’ve learned and talk to their primary care physician about what would be best for them. Users can also adjust the age and sex in the tool to get different screening recommendations without having it affect anything on their profile.”
Facebook says its system is similar to that of many physicians who have automated reminders for their patients but more generalised “since it’s not connected to any medical records or doctors’ offices”.
“We never see any of your health care stuff,” continues Abnousi. “This is simply taking information, making it understandable, and delivering it to our users and the people across Facebook.”
It will enable users to schedule reminders for upcoming appointments and even mark them complete post checkup. “Let’s focus on giving people tools for prevention, from the experts, and hopefully they will drive their preventive care,” Abnousi ended.
This introduction of a new tool by FACEBOOK marks their second venture into health-related tools. Its other effort, promoting local blood drives, launched in the United States in June after debuting in India in 2017.
Overall, both of these tools mark a far more simple entry into the health space than other tech giants have made. Amazon has been getting into online pharmacies and electronic health records, Apple is monitoring your heartbeat, and Google might be trying to buy Fitbit. In contrast, Facebook’s latest entry is basically enhanced reference pages from official websites mashed together with a calendar reminder, and tailored to broad demographics instead of individuals.
