Apple wants to make it easier for iPhone owners to register as organ donors by allowing users to sign up “in just a few taps” in the preinstalled health app on the forthcoming iOS 10.
More Donors Required
There is a donor shortage in the United States. There are over 120,000 people on the waiting list for an organ, and on average 22 people die each day without having received the necessary organ. Apple will be particularly aware of this as Steve Jobs had to suffer through an “excruciating” wait for a liver transplant in 2009.
It is thought that the new registration method will help increase registration levels among younger people, who are comfortable using their smartphone for various transactions.
David Fleming, the chief executive of Donate Life America, a nonprofit national donation registry, which is working with Apple, said of the new initiative, “Younger Americans are not registering at the same rate as they have in the past.”
People can access information about organ donation and ultimately enroll directly on the national register through the health app. You can also set it so that the fact that you have registered can be displayed on the phone’s locked screen.
The software will be available to all US based iPhones later this year with the release of the next operating system, the iOS 10.
Apple not the first tech company to encourage registrations
Facebook has been promoting organ donation since 2012. An option to allow members to display their registered status increased awareness and allowed users to share registry information in the area they live.
There are a number of apps available on Android for registering for organ donation. However, they lack the ease and simplicity of the new option on the iPhone. People are generally lazy, and Fleming believed the iPhone option would be more successful because “you don’t have to download something or do something additional to get access to it.”
The Apple CEO, Tim Cook, wants the new button to bring a “substantial increase” in the volume of registrations, which will in turn reduce the waiting times endured for new organs and ultimately save lives.
