With the goal of increasing organ donations, Facebook is encouraging users to share their organ donor status. Developers of this strategy, including Dr Andrew M. Cameron of John Hopkins Hospital, hope that inclusion of organ donor status in activities on Facebook will be a strategy for beneficial social engineering. The developers hope that peer pressure will encourage the choice of organ donation when social networkers see others list themselves as organ donors.
Facebook postings could also provide evidence of consent of the donor to assist family members in making difficult decisions related to organ donation. Dr Cameron hopes that over a million people might shift their donor status because of Facebook postings. Traditionally, the decision about organ donation is made at the Department of Motor Vehicles when a person obtains or renews a driver's license. Cameron feels that encouraging people to make this decision at home in a more personal environment, and hopefully influenced by postings on Facebook reflecting the choices of one's peers, might favorably increase the number of people who become organ donors. B. J. Fogg at the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford adds that the organ donation information on Facebook will trigger people who may never have even considered organ donation to at least think about this choice.
Organ donor information will appear in the Health and Wellness section of Facebook. Facebook is providing links to online organ donor registries to make the commitment easier. However, to avoid complications, people definitely need to follow up with these postings and go to their specific state organ donor registry.
The developers acknowledge that there are potential problems with this strategy. People opposed to organ donation could use this platform. However, the potential benefits of this innovative use of social networking are believed by the developers to outweigh any detrimental influence.
Source: Richter M, Sack K. Facebook is urging members to add organ donor status. The New York Times Business Day Technology. May 1, 2012. Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/01/technology/facebook-urges-members-to-add-organ. Accessed on May 3, 2012.
Submittted by: Robin E. Pattillo PhD, RN, CNL, News Editor at [email protected].