An accurate lung emoji is on a draft list of new emojis to be added to the official set by Unicode Consortium, the nonprofit organization responsible for determining which emoji get the green light.

Doctor and entrepreneur Suhan He from Affiliates Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospitals, who put in a proposal for the emoji to Unicode in March this year, said the lung, along with the brain and heart, was one of the most iconic organs in the body.

Credit: Anna Zeng

“The addition of the LUNG emoji would facilitate communication between patients and healthcare professionals by representing one of the body’s more complex systems with a single character,” he says.

“This would encourage increased awareness of risk factors, symptoms, and the impact on the lives of those affected by respiratory health issues through more accessible discussions and expressions of medical topics related to the lungs” the application states.

A heart emoji is also on Unicode’s shortlist for 2020.