Facebook is reportedly planning to foray into the healthcare sector using its vast social network to bring people together and spread knowledge about various diseases.
Facebook, the world's largest social networking site, will soon add another category to its extensive social network. The company is reportedly exploring its chances in the healthcare sector as a way to connect sufferers of various diseases and offer preventive care applications. The information was shared by three people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity as the plans are still in the initial stage, Reuters reported.
Facebook already knows a lot about its users around the world and soon it will learn users' state of health. According to the report, the social network giant will create "support communities" to help its users know more about certain ailments. Facebook has also been conducting secret meetings with members of the medical industry for the past few months and is planning to set up a new research and development unit to test health related apps.
This isn't the first time Facebook is making a health-related move through its social network. In 2012, the company started a program, "Donate Life America," through which it encouraged people to register themselves as organ donors. The program boosted the number of registered donors by more than 21 times the average daily registration to 13,054 from a mere 616 daily registrations across the nation, according to a study conducted by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
With the unprecedented success of the program, Facebook will dig deeper in the healthcare category. The report also found that CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, who recently donated $5 million towards Ravenswood Health Center in East Palo Alto, will be involved in the development of this new initiative.
While it is too early to predict Facebook's next move in the healthcare segment, a source told Reuters that the company will launch its first health care app under a different name without publicity.
