Apple's Increasing Focus on Health Seen in Recent Hiring Trends, New Board Member

[Spardocus]

Apple has been talking for years about the role it wants to play in human health, led by the Apple Watch and its array of health-related features. With the Apple Watch maturing and Apple increasing its integration of health-focused hardware and software, several pieces of evidence suggest the company is positioning itself for an even bigger expansion in that direction.

According to trends compiled by Linkedin and seen by MacRumors, over the past year, Apple's open job listings in health-related fields have increased by over 220%, with a significant portion of the increase coming in just the last several months. Apple's health-focused hiring has been the fastest-growing segment for the company over the past year, followed most closely by sales and IT specialists, such as in cloud computing and security, according to the data.

Apple has stepped up features and services related to consumers' health over the past several years, with much of the credit being given to the Apple Watch. Apple has slowly transformed the Apple Watch into a more integral health tool, incorporating more sensors, such as blood oxygen, with on-device machine intelligence to notice possibly alarming trends in heart rate and more.

In another sign of its aspirations in health, Apple this week announced that Johnson & Johnson chairman and CEO Alex Gorsky has joined its Board of Directors. Gorsky is a "visionary in healthcare" who brings with him "tremendous insight, experience, and passion for technology to the cause of improving lives and building healthier communities," said Apple CEO Tim Cook. Gorsky joins former Genentech Chairman and CEO Arthur Levinson on Apple's board, giving Apple significant health-related expertise on its board.

As for Apple's job listings, many of them focus on health research rather than specific product development roles. Apple has invested heavily in health research with the Research app, pursuing it as the first step for any future health features on the iPhone or Apple Watch. Apple's health research efforts of course also internally support the development of new products and features.

One particular job listing posted earlier in the summer seeks a manager to "lead human study efforts in collecting data to support development and validation of new health sensors and algorithms." Another job listing seeks a more product-oriented candidate that will "work closely with other designers, writers, engineers, scientists, researchers, and business partners to concept, prototype, and design elegant experiences that help our customers be in control of their health."

Apple has branched out regarding health, moving away from only providing users data from sensors on the iPhone and Apple Watch, but also working with hospitals and medical institutions to create a broader ecosystem. With the Health app on iOS 15, Apple added functionality for users to share health data with family and close friends, COVID-19 vaccine records, blood glucose highlights, and more.

The centerpiece of Apple's health roadmap is the Apple Watch, and reports suggest the watch will continue to mature as an independent health device in the years to come. Users may be able to measure their body temperature and even their blood pressure in future iterations of the Apple Watch.

"Apple's most-important contribution to mankind has been in health," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an interview in January of 2019, just months after the Apple Watch had gained the ability for users to take an ECG right on their wrist. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on the company's recent health-related hiring trends.

Article Link: Apple's Increasing Focus on Health Seen in Recent Hiring Trends, New Board Member

Would love more Whoop like features: more info of when to rest when to go harder etc.

 

[prizm]

For the love of God, Apple, make Apple Health available on MacOS, or at the very least iPadOS. Viewing all this data on a stupid little iPhone screen is rediculous

 

[DeepWebinar]

Apple Watch

Ah. Well I could see why healthcare providers wouldn't fully embrace it. Like you said, that would involve a lot of training and there are barriers for their want to invest resources. The data it collects would only be useful in some scenarios and I could see there being a question of consistency for it to be a reliable source to turn to due to lack of accessibility from price / the phone their patients use. It would also have to be taken into consideration if the person actually uses their watch all day, every day. Plus, the number of people with an apple watch in comparison to the general population is really low.

 

[sw1tcher]

Apple has been talking for years about the role it wants to play in human health, led by the Apple Watch and its array of health-related features. With the Apple Watch maturing and Apple increasing its integration of health-focused hardware and software, several pieces of evidence suggest the company is positioning itself for an even bigger expansion in that direction.

Apple has branched out regarding health, moving away from only providing users data from sensors on the iPhone and Apple Watch, but also working with hospitals and medical institutions to create a broader ecosystem.

If Apple wants to get into health and services and want recurring revenue from it, they can get into health insurance. Just look at the billions companies like United Health and Anthem bring in each year.

 

[sw1tcher]

In another sign of its aspirations in health, Apple this week announced that Johnson & Johnson chairman and CEO Alex Gorsky has joined its Board of Directors. Gorsky is a "visionary in healthcare" who brings with him "tremendous insight, experience, and passion for technology to the cause of improving lives and building healthier communities," said Apple CEO Tim Cook.

?

Maybe Cook didn't see this?

Johnson & Johnson CEO testified Baby Powder was safe 13 days before FDA bombshell

Facing off against a plaintiff’s lawyer for the first time about Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder, the company’s Chief Executive Alex Gorsky earlier this month insisted that the company’s iconic brand was safe.

www.reuters.com

Then again, Gorsky would fit in nicely at Apple. He's good a lying. He'd toe the company line by telling us things such as allowing us to repair our Apple health device (right to repair) would be dangerous, like sideloading

 

[wigby]

They're not actually conservative. I work in the field, and we're using AWS, Azure, Kubernetes, etc. We have multiple data centers, fallback data centers, It's a really high level of tech, to be honest. I'm actually in a meeting right now discussing how we can support Android 12 theming in our app. That's maybe 12 months out from being cutting edge.

What is conservative is anything related to HIPAA. And the majority of HIPAA related data is stored in EMRs, which are 3rd party vendors. Epic, for example, holds 54% of all medical records for Americans. And they're nice... and... slow... which severely limits how much you can do. IIRC, they don't support Apple Watch yet either, which is a major reason why we don't support the Apple Watch.

The other issue with using IoT devices to get health data is that you need to make them reliable and fool-proof enough that you can hand them out to end users who have no medical training and use still trust the data that they give back.

Imagine asking a cardiac patient to put on their own heart monitors; the data would be unreliable at best, so while it's nice that you can do it from the comfort of home, you'd still have false positives and false negatives due to the fact that you can't trust that the leads are connected properly.

Now lets move to HealthKit. Apple's be-all-end-all for healthcare.

Imagine Starbucks automatically adds your caffeine intake into HealthKit whenever you order a drink using their app. And that you're also using a calorie tracking app, so you add in your coffee when you get it. If that calorie tracking app also adds in the caffeine, the HealthKit data now contains 2x the entries for your coffee. And since the calorie counter doesn't know about Starbucks, it doesn't take it into consideration. The only way that your data is correct is if Apple can determine that your manually entered data is identical to what Starbucks gives - And it's really hard to determine if it's 1 cup of coffee from Starbucks and one from the coffee machine, or if it's the same coffee.

So all this data that's in HealthKit, is unreliable -- it's kind of useless from a clinical standpoint.

Sure you can look at trends, or say "This person drinks a lot of coffee" or "This person hardly ever has coffee", but that's about all it's good for, in its current state. Abstractions, estimates, and best guesses. You can get the same resolution of data by asking a person "Do you exercise regularly", or even just looking at their waist line.

Step counting and the like is great for the gamification of your health (and selling Apple Fitness+), but not for precise clinical data.

HealthKit is in very early stages so there should be no clinical data gathering on any individual basis. HealthkKt is designed to scale out in an effort to find large patterns for studies and future clinical trials. When you have 100+ million users, using AI to find obscure patterns in the population becomes an easy task. After that, you get real clinicians to look at the most promising patterns to decide which go further into real clinical trials. Meanwhile, Apple Watch can still function as a simple diagnostic tool to alert users to potential health issues. We are at least a decade away from a Watch that sends critical data directly to a physician without the patient's knowledge or input.

 

[Runequester]

People will moan about literally anything.

 

[kurtfoster]

If they really cared about human health, they wouldn’t stop making LCD iPhones

Can you explain further on this comment?

 

[MrMojo1]

AW is clearly not a medical device and imho will never become one unless they decide to create a “medical edition” that then will be priced accordingly…
I have to find that article again, it was somewhat disheartening to read that healthcare providers complain about patients “worrying too much” about the data they get from their devices… while some are getting it, I think the problem is the Pharma side and doctors still are quick to prescribe meds when not really needed, in the US that is. So a big shift in mindset along with $$$ needs to occur…

The pharma industry in the US and American doctors are too quick to prescribe medication for whatever ills come.

But the medical field is/has slowly opened up to alternative medicine, like Eastern medicine like acupuncture and herbal medicinals, but obviously very conservative about it, considering that Eastern medicine has been practiced for centuries long before Western medicine was developed.

 

[jz0309]

They're not actually conservative. I work in the field, and we're using AWS, Azure, Kubernetes, etc. We have multiple data centers, fallback data centers, It's a really high level of tech, to be honest. I'm actually in a meeting right now discussing how we can support Android 12 theming in our app. That's maybe 12 months out from being cutting edge.

What is conservative is anything related to HIPAA. And the majority of HIPAA related data is stored in EMRs, which are 3rd party vendors. Epic, for example, holds 54% of all medical records for Americans. And they're nice... and... slow... which severely limits how much you can do. IIRC, they don't support Apple Watch yet either, which is a major reason why we don't support the Apple Watch.

The other issue with using IoT devices to get health data is that you need to make them reliable and fool-proof enough that you can hand them out to end users who have no medical training and use still trust the data that they give back.

Imagine asking a cardiac patient to put on their own heart monitors; the data would be unreliable at best, so while it's nice that you can do it from the comfort of home, you'd still have false positives and false negatives due to the fact that you can't trust that the leads are connected properly.

Now lets move to HealthKit. Apple's be-all-end-all for healthcare.

Imagine Starbucks automatically adds your caffeine intake into HealthKit whenever you order a drink using their app. And that you're also using a calorie tracking app, so you add in your coffee when you get it. If that calorie tracking app also adds in the caffeine, the HealthKit data now contains 2x the entries for your coffee. And since the calorie counter doesn't know about Starbucks, it doesn't take it into consideration. The only way that your data is correct is if Apple can determine that your manually entered data is identical to what Starbucks gives - And it's really hard to determine if it's 1 cup of coffee from Starbucks and one from the coffee machine, or if it's the same coffee.

So all this data that's in HealthKit, is unreliable -- it's kind of useless from a clinical standpoint.

Sure you can look at trends, or say "This person drinks a lot of coffee" or "This person hardly ever has coffee", but that's about all it's good for, in its current state. Abstractions, estimates, and best guesses. You can get the same resolution of data by asking a person "Do you exercise regularly", or even just looking at their waist line.

Step counting and the like is great for the gamification of your health (and selling Apple Fitness+), but not for precise clinical data.

Thanks for your insights, appreciated. I agree with your statements re HIPAA and as well as AW nor any (?) current "IOT" device delivers precise clinical data.
I am still holding my "conservative" statement when it comes to healthcare providers (Family Doctors, nurses and such), they are much quicker prescribing meds than taking the time to understand people's lifestyles and how to possibly change that. I hav experienced that myself but am also not willing to disclose my medical records here in public, and, my experience is limited to myself and my family ...
There is lots to do and lots to learn in this field

 

[nattK]

Excited to see where they go with this although chances are Apple will likely be forced to expand beyond the Apple Watch. There's only so many things you can measure through the wrist.

 

[Bandaman]

If they really cared about human health, they wouldn’t stop making LCD iPhones

Why do people have to come into otherwise good threads about something good and find something to be utterly miserable about that has absolutely nothing to do with the thread itself?

 

[Bandaman]

For the love of God, Apple, make Apple Health available on MacOS, or at the very least iPadOS. Viewing all this data on a stupid little iPhone screen is rediculous

Yes, all of the health features, like the Fitness App. Having to AirPlay it to my Mac screen because it's not there is incredibly inconvenient.

 

[shyam09]

I totally agree that CGM would be awesome and I do believe the technology will be there at some point, however, if it were to come to the AW and not requiring needles, thus allowing diabetics to “just look at their watch”, it would be a medical device, peoples lives would depend on its accuracy. I do not believe we will see that kind of functionality for another 3+ years in an AW (as much as I would like to).

Not to mention it would need FDA approval as well. It would come to the US first and much later for other countries. f

 

[jz0309]

Not to mention it would need FDA approval as well. It would come to the US first and much later for other countries. f

And likely require a couple years of clinical trials… which is why I do not believe that it will come to AW, but rather the “generic trend (maybe normal, elevated, high or something like that)” which will be a great feature for a lot of people but not for the chronically ill ones

 

[_Spinn_]

Hopefully this means exciting new sensors coming to Apple Watch in the future.

 

[wigby]

And Pro-Motion is not being offered in Safari browser ??

Isn't Pro-Motion a hardware implementation in the display that either is on for everything or not?

 

[Bandaman]

Isn't Pro-Motion a hardware implementation in the display that either is on for everything or not?

No, developers have to update their apps to take advantage of the display’s high refresh rate. The fact that Apple hasn’t updated their own app to work with it is a clown show.

 

[neliason]

I don’t consider a pharmaceutical executive being on the board as a move towards encouraging health. The fitness and activity aspects of Apple products are great. Those promote health.

But the real money is in drugs. I hope the addition of a J&J executive doesn’t portend Siri recommendations including what drugs we need.

 

[Rocko99991]

Well if Bill Gates can be a health expert...

 

[fhopper]

I deleted the Research App when I read the small print. I do not care to provide data to the WHO and the cabal that runs it.

 

[fhopper]

Healthcare industry is very conservative and needs some breakthroughs on new technologies, and embrace it.
I just a few days ago read an article from the verge how healthcare providers still do not embrace AW, there is so much education still needed and research data will help.

When Apple can certify the sensors as medical grade then docs will care.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

HealthKit is in very early stages so there should be no clinical data gathering on any individual basis. HealthkKt is designed to scale out in an effort to find large patterns for studies and future clinical trials. When you have 100+ million users, using AI to find obscure patterns in the population becomes an easy task. After that, you get real clinicians to look at the most promising patterns to decide which go further into real clinical trials. Meanwhile, Apple Watch can still function as a simple diagnostic tool to alert users to potential health issues. We are at least a decade away from a Watch that sends critical data directly to a physician without the patient's knowledge or input.

No, no, and just no.

HealthKit is not a beta. It's not "early access". It's a personal database of healthcare related data. And it's really good if you just want to track your weight on a day to day basis, when you exercise, or the like. The problem is that taking that data and using it as clinical notes or a medical record is super problematic. It doesn't matter if the data is as benign as your weight or as complex as calorie intake, it's not useful medical data, and getting high resolution data out of healthKit and trusting it is impossible.

And until we get medical grade devices that plug into HealthKit - which means a medical grade device that syncs with iOS - it will forever remain impossible.

 

[onix]

Glucose monitoring is a big leap forward for Apple Watch 8; if Rockley Photonics has it ready by then. No more needle pricks for diabetics; would alone boost tremendous sales. 'Clinic on your wrist' is the term; and I think too many expected this in Watch 7 even though Rockley said 2022-23 commercialization is their timeline. (So RKLY shares collapsed from the SPAC IPO around 15 and now near 6 -tax loss selling by those who bought the opening.) Rockley probably is a potential multi-x gainer next year if this all proceeds in time for Watch 8. Rumors should increase by springtime 2022.

? chasing this golden egg… It’s not going to happen. The number of times we’ve heard this will be in the next gen watch makes me ?.

No benchtop system without the limits of size, power supply, and cost, and with the access of a controlled environment has delivered on the ability to provide a noninvasive blood glucose measurement even with a reference calibration. What leads anyone to believe that we’ll have a watch that can do this AND get regulatory approval in our lifetime?

 

[DeepIn2U]

Fitness #1. I’m glad Apple is expending more in the health industry.

Oh ... this will be a HUGE cash cow in terms of products and services for Apple. Apple will need to advance Fitness+ so that it's not central to the home. 'Stay-at-home' restrictions are lifting pretty much worldwide now, and competitors like Peleton are reaching into cycling races (not in home) or partnering with Adidas with clothing and shoes.

Apple should adjust and expand this outside of just their own products or just with Nike+ edition watches, maybe a deeper integration or something more/different.

An aside ... those with AirPods Pro's ... have you noticed when outside in public any high-pitched sound approaching you, that the APPs automatically/auto-magically enable ANC at varying levels in 1 or either or both pods to protect your hearing?!?! EVEN if you've not specifically enabled this on Watch/iPhone? I think this is incredible!

If you think what Apple is doing and accomplished, their after a complete health aspect:
Mindful (more than just breathing) - focusing on mental calm/health and maybe even focused attention (as a reset).
Fitness+ and rings - the ability to challenge friends and other Watch users really prepares Apple to take on Peleton (yet it's not specific to just cycling).
Washing Hands - meh not interested but their focusing a bit during pandemic for germs (doubt this can get better but it is a good try).
Audio health: Both as an accessory augmentation to hear better for those that need it or just be more aware in public environments, think of someone stalking you, you can discretely enable a boosted ambient audio, maybe even record what is being said as an evidence. On the other scale protecting our eardrums with limiting high decibels.
Heart Rate, ECG and Blood Oxygen - very welcomed and a heavy reason beyond rings why I purchased and continue to purchase Apple Watch!!
partnerships with gym equipment makers for rings/activity sync - this needs to be pushed more if possible.

Using the Watch + AirPods Pro/AirPods 3s built-in gyros to detect balance, cadence or falling is incredible.

There is a LOT Apple is doing, subtle steps but powerfully adding up year after year. This is great for Fitness but Apple is going for total human health here.