Facebook’s health research head says doctors should have more patient data
- 24 October 2018
Facebook’s head of health research has reportedly said he believes doctors should have access to even more data about patients, including information about their social lives.
Freddy Abnousi called for more access to data on patients’ social and behavioural characteristics, though he did not specifically mention Facebook data, CNBC has reported.
Abnousi told delegates at a US conference that researchers have evidence suggesting a person’s social life impacts their health more than almost any other major risk factor.
But Abnousi argued that such data is not easily available.
Speaking at the Manova Summit earlier this month, he said: “The primary driver of health outcomes in the United States are social and behavioural variables.
“Really understanding what these social determinants of health are should be our primary area of focus.”
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, social and behavioural factors include person’s housing situation, network of friends, marital status, spirituality and type of employment.
Abnousi said some studies have revealed such factors can have a bigger impact on whether a person survives a massive heart attack than their genetics.
According to CNBC, Abnousi led Facebook’s now closed research project which involved approaching medical institutions to find out whether they would be willing to share anonymised patient data.
Digital Health News reported in April 2018 that Facebook had put the brakes on the project in light of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
5 Comments
This is the problem when you have a steam roller. You “roll it out” over everyone in sight, which has a deleterious effect on their health. So called “population health management” is another case in point. If you see it coming your way, run for your life! Facebook should carry a Government Health Warning for the benefit of anyone stupid enough to think of using it.
As I doctor, If I feel I need to know more about my patient’s “social characteristics”, I will ask them directly, not raid their Facebook account.
Exactly – there’s a lot of ways to get this kind of insight.
I believe what they are saying here is a patient ‘social genome’ points to likely illness.
However I can’t see this getting past the recent bad press, if Cambridge Analytica had used its data to tackle obesity instead then yes go for it but they didn’t.
This is the problem when you have a hammer, you see everything as a nail.
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