In addition to knowing the most precious details about your life, Facebook could soon know all about your health. Reuters reports that the social networking company is planning its first experiments with healthcare systems and apps, including "support communities" for people with similar illnesses or conditions, and "preventative care" platforms and apps to help people live healthier lives.
Facebook is still in the early stages of its healthcare planning, but the company has been meeting with "medical industry experts and entrepreneurs" and is setting up a division to test health-related apps and programs. If a Facebook healthcare initiative eventually does launch, it would put the company in the health race along with Apple and Google, which each have their own healthcare monitoring platforms.
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Healthcare has been an interest of Facebook's for some time. Back in 2012, Facebook introduced the "organ-donor status initiative," which let users identify themselves as organ donors, and that program ended up being a surprise success. CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, alsodonated $5 million to Silicon Valley Community Foundation back in 2012 to support health and education.
It's still unclear as to when we could see the first healthcare app from Facebook, and it might even be hard to tell when it finally does come out. A source told Reuters that Facebook is considering launching its first healthcare app "quietly and under a different name."
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