KATE THOMPSON FERREIRA: Can Facebook be trusted to track your personal health details?

Last week Facebook announced plans to enter the health-tech, or e-health space, with the introduction of a new feature called Preventive Health. This is — for now — available only to US users of the social platform, and promises to provide recommendations of local health centres, set reminders for appointments, and mark when these health tests are done.

It makes sense for Facebook to play here. It is already so integrated into the lives of regular users. How does anyone remember a birthday these days, if Facebook does not prompt them? It also knows your anniversaries, and has an excellent “on this day” function, and it’s barely a baby step from that to reminding you when you’re due for a mammogram.

We have seen amazing innovations using digital solutions in health care for a number of years. Two of my favourites are home-grown examples I’ve written about before. Vula Mobile started off as an ophthalmic tool for remote consultations, and has since grown into a referral network connecting patients with specialists in cardiology, orthopaedics, burns, HIV care and other areas.

MomConnect — a project of the department of health and the Praekelt Foundation — guides pregnant women and new mothers through information and support provision, based on the pregnancy or age stage they are at. Something in the region of 95% of SA clinics are participating in the programme, connecting patients with the messaging platform that works with all phones — not just smart ones — and there are 2-million registered users. Two-million moms who are, thankfully, not feeling quite so alone on their pre- and neonatal journeys through an overwhelmed public health-care system.

Health-care challenges

Many of the bigger tech companies of the world support health innovations in developing countries. Samsung’s solar-powered mobile clinics have been operational in SA for five or so years. Microsoft’s 4Afrika initiative supports a bunch of e-health start-ups, including a group called access.mobile and their tool amHealth, which helps with practice and clinic management, as well as follow-up with patients on chronic medications or ongoing care regimes. 

There is obvious need for these initiatives. Africa faces a raft of health-care challenges, and — if you’ll forgive a tinge of cynicism — creating an app, decking out a clinic, or launching a broad reach programme are all “easy sells” within corporate social responsibility spheres because their outcomes are (a) so tangible and (b) the causes themselves tug directly on heartstrings. It’s like LiveAid, but cooler: yes, Bob Geldof, we know when it’s Christmas, but with direct start-up support, we’re being given the funding to build our own solutions.

Could “aid-based” e-health programmes sometimes be better run? Could we argue for competing funding priorities? Yes, and yes. But in the meantime, there are mothers in rural Africa hearing a foetal heartbeat for the first time, without having to make a plan to access large, expensive (and often urban-centralised) equipment.

Another easy win for digital in health is record keeping. If you break your leg skiing in Austria, ideally you’d like the attending physician to have access to your medical history. If your patient profile was all in the cloud that would be a cinch.

Then there is the hardware implications, and this gets exciting when combined with artificial intelligence (AI). French firm Diabeloop offers a system akin to an artificial pancreas for type 1 diabetes sufferers. By connecting a continuous glucose monitor, an insulin pump and the processing power of AI (in a handset, in this case), the measuring and managing of blood glucose levels is virtually automated. For a lifelong, high-touch condition like diabetes that is the holy grail.

There are trade-offs, though, and reasons to be wary of giving corporates this kind of control and volume of personal data. At its Preventive Health launch, Facebook was clear it absolutely promises not to share this medical info it will have about you with any advertisers. Pinky promise. Of course, critics will not be comforted by this, as many are still reeling from the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Perhaps the key is to shift from appearing to care about people, to — you know — actually caring about people. It’s funny and an utter double standard, because I’m happy to use a Fitbit or health app, but it just might take another decade of Facebook walking the ethical line before I’m ready to hand them the keys to that particular set of data.

• Thompson Ferreira is a freelance journalist, impactAFRICA fellow and WanaData member.