Facebook recently launched “Preventive Health”, a tool where users can share their health information with the social media service and receive reminders for key health check-ups, tests, and screenings.
Facebook’s reminders and the tool is based on guidelines from 4 major American health organizations, the American Cancer Society, the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Some hope that this tool will increase preventative and regular healthcare across users. Critics of this tool are worried about privacy and security, as Facebook historically hasn’t protected information well, and since users are sharing the information with the platform, HIPAA compliance rules won’t apply.
To ease privacy concerns, Facebook has noted they will not let ads run on this tool and none of the health information will be available to third-parties. They also say they don’t ask for specific details regarding your checkups and tests, only that they happened.
We asked our panel communities of patients and healthcare professionals:
"Would you try this tool or suggest it to your patients?"
While our patient respondents overwhelmingly said they would not use this tool, about 16% said it was a good idea. 38% of healthcare professionals said they will not be suggesting this tool to their patients and that Facebook’s Preventive Health tool is a major data privacy concern. 35% of patients say they will try the tool and a total of 47% of healthcare professionals say they would suggest Facebook’s preventive healthcare tool to their patients.
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