BY: CLAIRE KIM
Blood donations have always been a physical struggle, especially when many patients need blood at once with low donors available. Because the demand for blood fluctuates from time to time, this makes it hard for doctors to contact potential blood donors immediately thus putting the burden on both themselves and their patients throughout the urgent process. However, in light of the advancing technologies of 2019, there seems to be an efficient solution at hand with the help of Facebook.
Facebook, a widely known social media platform, has taken the challenge to solve this issue through the use of their online app to submit quicker and easier blood transactions for blood donation hospitals. With the app, Facebook users can sign up to be blood donors under their profile pages receiving notifications from centers when blood is needed at any given moment.
In an event that one’s city or district needs in of blood, this app can help reach out to those nearby who are willing to give blood if they are within reasonable distance and time.
I think one of the biggest issues we have faced with our current blood banking system is the lack of public announcements when such blood transfusions are needed. Seeing that so many people have signed up to be blood donors in an emergency, shows that our country has many willing donors inline it’s just that such notifications are not being informed well enough. Hopefully, through this internet-based process, such excuses will no longer be an issue.
Announced this past week, Facebook has stated that “more than 35 million people have signed up to be blood donors on [their app] in countries where the donation feature is available” (CNN). It’s exciting to see how tech companies are using their platforms for the greater health of our community as time progresses. As a country, we are truly getting a step closer to what a truly “integrated” society looks like not just through likes or comments on a post but through helping one another.
claire kim. 