Apple hiring drive fuels mHealth speculation
pharmafile | May 6, 2014 | News story | Medical Communications, Sales and Marketing | Apple, health, healthbook, tech, watch, wearable
Apple has headhunted a number of leading healthcare tech experts, sparking rumours that the firm is poised to make a major foray into mobile health (mHealth).
Reuters reports that the past year has seen a number of respected figures, many of whom are prominent in biosensor research, move to the California-based firm.
These include Michael O’Reilly, the former chief medical officer of Masimo – a firm which develops respiratory tracking devices – and Ravi Narasimhan, previously the VP of biosensor tech at Vital Connect, which specialises in temperature and heart rate measurement.
Masimo’s chief executive officer Joe Kiani is wary of Apple’s latest talent acquisition drive, saying: “Some of the talent has access to deep wells of trade secrets and information. I just hope Apple is not doing what we’re doing.”
The tech giant has long signalled its interest in the emerging field of wearable technology. A patent for a headset- or earbud-based ‘sports monitoring system’ was filed as far back as 2007, and chief executive Tim Cook last year described the sensor field as an area set to ‘explode’ in the future.
The firm has already registered the trademark ‘iWatch’ in Japan, and its recent partnership with Nike – which launched the fitness-tracking FuelBand device in 2012 – suggests biosensors could be built into any such new product.
There is also a great deal of speculation about Apple’s new iPhone operating system and its anticipated in-built Healthbook app. At a digital marketing event last month, med comms expert Alex Butler described the suite of health-monitoring utilities as potentially marking the ‘biggest change in mobile health’.
Any such app will need to satisfy regulatory demands before release. Senior executives of Apple and the FDA are reported to have met earlier this year, including Masimo defector O’Reilly and Bakul Patel, who has played a leading role in the regulator’s move into medical app and technology assessment.
Apple is being typically tight-lipped about its developing portfolio and has declined to comment on its recent hiring spree. However, more details on the former may be announced at the firm’s upcoming developer conference WWDC 2014, which will take place on 2 June in San Francisco.
Hugh McCafferty
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