Health IT, Patient Engagement

Facebook to create patient communities, create a Facebook for healthcare

People freely share a lot of personal information on Facebook, sometimes too much like those […]

People freely share a lot of personal information on Facebook, sometimes too much like those chronic Facebook posters we know so well. The burgeoning communities dedicated to people with common and rare conditions feels like a missed opportunity, but Facebook is on the case and is planning a move into health, according to Reuters.

Three sources familiar with the company’s plans told Reuters Facebook has been holding meetings with medical industry experts and entrepreneurs, and is setting up a research and development unit to test new health apps. It’s early days, though.

It’s not surprising that healthcare would be an area of interest for the company which had a whopping 1.3 billion active users as of the end of June. The amount of Facebook plays host to lots of  hospitals and healthcare organizations.

Of course, a lot of the patient communities are candid with their members that some of the information they share is sold to healthcare companies. But with Facebook’s recent missteps, it’s an open question on how much users would trust them to manage privacy concerns over sensitive health information. Only this week Facebook apologized for an experiment done months ago that used its members as guinea pigs and manipulated some news feeds to see how users would react.

PatientsLikeMe, HealthUnlocked and social networks oriented around cancer have demonstrated that there’s a lot of value in connecting people who have experience in managing their condition with newbies struggling with their diagnosis. They can also share advice on finding local resources and empathize with people who feel isolated and disconnected from their friends and family.

Facebook’s ginormous community would make it a lot easier to set up. But if the king of social networks expects people to participate in its patient communities it will have to hold itself to a higher standard. As we saw this week at ENGAGE, patients are partners and they will expect the company to adopt that attitude.

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