Smartphone users are going to <3 this.
Emojis for an anatomically correct heart and a pair of lungs are coming to keyboards this year — thanks in part to a Massachusetts doctor, a report said Tuesday.
Dr. Shuhan can breathe a sigh of relief after learning that the Unicode Consortium — the group responsible for approving new emojis each year — approved the mini medical renderings for release in 2020.
“This was just really fun for me,” He, who practices emergency medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, told The Boston Globe. “It’s just really exciting.”
But the new symbols are more than just a victory to accuracy-obsessed doctors — they could potentially save lives.
“The anatomical heart and lungs are really widely applicable, not only just in medicine but outside of it as well,” He told The Globe. “Emojis are just a way to communicate in a way that is less confusing for everyone.”
For example, He said, the new emojis can help patients get across that they are having pain or complications with their actual hearts and lungs.
He co-wrote the pitch to the Unicode Consortium with Melissa Thermidor of Britain’s NHS Blood and Transplant; Christian Kamkoff, a Columbia University MFA candidate; and Jennifer Lee, the co-founder of Emojination and a vice-chair on the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee, according to The Globe.
“You may just think of emoji as a fun messaging tool — however, they could be used to start some serious conversations about our health, and we need to get people talking about these organs and the fact that more people need to donate them to save lives,” Thermidor told the paper.
When the additions were announced last week, they were given a hearty cheer by many, including the American Lung Association.
“We’re so excited!” the group tweeted, along with an image of the yet unreleased lung emoji.
He is, meanwhile, continuing to pitch ideas for other anatomical emojis to Unicode.
“There’s a lot more that could be coming down the pipeline,” He told The Globe, though he kept tight-lipped about what that might include.