Your new post is loading...
Many of today’s leading health threats aren’t ones that science or medicine can solve alone.
Changing trends in communication and unequal access to care to mean we need new solutions and partnerships to overcome these global challenges.
Facebook is developing products and partnerships that can help people connect with resources to support their health.
Take the issue of blood shortages. Every few seconds, someone in the world needs blood. But people often aren’t aware of shortages and don’t know where to donate. To address this, we launched a feature in the US, India, Brazil, Bangladesh, and Pakistan that makes it easy to sign up as a donor on Facebook and get notified when nearby blood banks are in need. So far, more than 50 million people have signed up to donate.
Another area we’re exploring is preventive health. Tens of millions of people in the US are missing out on recommended preventive care. Preventive measures have the potential to detect disease early when it’s most treatable and, in some cases, prevent it from developing. Yet factors such as awareness, access, and cost create barriers to testing for many people.
- We’re working with US health organizations to offer a Preventive Health tool that connects people to health resources and checkup reminders.
- People can use the tool to find affordable places to receive care, set reminders to schedule tests, mark when tests are completed, and more.
Our initial focus is on the top two leading causes of death in the US: heart disease and cancer.
How Preventive Health Works
In the US, people can search for Preventive Health in the Facebook mobile app and find out which checkups, such as cholesterol tests or mammograms, are recommended by these health organizations based on the age and sex they provide. Reminders for flu shots will also appear at the appropriate time of year.
The tool allows people to mark when tests are completed, set reminders to schedule future tests and tell loved ones about the tool to increase awareness of preventive care. People can also learn more about each checkup and find affordable places to receive care.
Privacy Matters
Health is particularly personal, so we took privacy and safety into account from the beginning.
For example, Preventive Health allows you to set reminders for your future checkups and mark them as done, but it doesn’t provide us, or the health organizations we’re working with, access to your actual test results. Personal information about your activity in Preventive Health is not shared with third parties, such as health organizations or insurance companies, so it can’t be used for purposes like insurance eligibility.
We know there’s more we can do to help people, and we’ll continue to partner with organizations to provide access to resources and reach people in diverse communities.
Read More: https://about.fb.com/news/2019/10/connecting-people-with-health-resources/
