The Apple logo is projected on the screen at an Apple event at the Worldwide Developer's Conference on June 13, 2016 in San Francisco, California. (Photo : Getty Images/Andrew Burton)
Apple Inc. plans to incorporate a software update into its iPhones with a view to encourage users to register as organ donors. The company will add an easy sign-up button to the health information app that comes pre-installed on every iPhone.
CEO Tim Cook is hopeful that the new software, which will have limited release this month, will aid in easing a critical and long existing donor shortage. Cook told the Associated Press that he realized the problem when his friend and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, suffered an agonizing wait for a liver transplant in 2009.
As a result, the Cupertino tech giant has teamed up with Donate Life America, a non-profit organization focused on increasing organ donation throughout the United States, to enable iPhone users to sign up for organ donation via the Health app in iOS. The new feature will be available in iOS 10, which is scheduled to roll out in the fall.
About one person dies every hour in the United States while waiting for an organ transplant, as the demand for lifesaving transplants is far more compared to the available supply of organs, Donate Life America President and CEO David Fleming said in a press release issued by Apple recently. He further said that with Apple bringing the National Donate Life Registry to the Health app on iPhone, it will be easier for people to find out about organ, eye and tissue donation and register quickly.
According to the press release, currently more than 120,000 Americans are waiting for a lifesaving transplant. A new individual is added to the national transplant waiting list every 10 minutes. Each organ donor is able to save as many as eight lives and heal many more by gifting tissues and donating their eyes.
However, Apple Inc. is not the first tech giant to promote organ donation. In 2012, Facebook added a feature that allows users of this social network to display their status as registered donors, and also share links to registries in their respective states or countries. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University admitted that the feature encouraged thousands of new registrations. However, gradually the volume dropped from a one-day peak of 13,000.
Watch how organ donation works below:
