New Hires Point to Apple's Continued Research on Next-Generation Health Sensors

With Apple CEO Tim Cook suggesting that Apple will use its skills building software, hardware, and services to create "great products" in product categories that Apple does not currently participate in, the company is making a number of potentially significant hires related to the development of next-generation medical sensors.

According to a report from 9to5Mac, Apple has hired a pair of personal health sensor hardware experts in recent months.

Nancy Ravi
Apple recently hired Nancy Dougherty as a hardware engineer, according to her LinkedIn page. Dougherty was previously a hardware developer at Sano Intelligence, a biosensor startup that was profiled by The New York Times back in 2012.

According to a Google cache of her LinkedIn page -- the current page reads slightly differently, with less detail about the projects she worked on -- Dougherty worked on a hardware product to monitor blood chemistry via a wearable device.

Hardware Lead
Sano Intelligence
November 2012 – December 2013 (1 year 2 months) San Francisco Bay Area

- Hardware Lead in a very early stage company designing a novel system to continuously monitor blood chemistry via microneedles in the interstitial fluid. Brought system from conception through development and board spins to a functioning wearable pilot device.
- Solely responsible for electrical design, testing, and bring-up as well as system integration; managing contractors for layout, assembly, and mechanical systems
- Building laboratory data collection systems and other required electrical and mechanical systems to support chemical development

Before working at Sano, Dougherty worked at Proteus Digital Health on a "Bluetooth-enabled electronic "Band-Aid" that monitors heart rate, respiration, motion, and temperature".

Separately, Apple hired Ravi Narasimhan away from Vital Connect, a biosensor technology firm where he was "responsible for biosensor technology and algorithms for remote physiological monitoring with wearable medical devices". His devices could process a number of functions including heart monitoring, respiration, fall detection, posture and activity. He has been prolific writer, with a number of papers published in technical journals and he is listed as an inventor in dozens of patents.

Both Dougherty and Narasimhan have electrical engineering degrees from Stanford. Last year, Apple made a number of other hires related to the health sensor field and 9to5Mac says both have joined the iWatch team.

Aside from the hires, 9to5Mac reports that Apple is actively investigating iris scanning technology and is looking at using other sensors already built into the iPhone, like the accelerometer and compass, to improve facial recognition. Apple increased the iPhone's security significantly with the addition of the Touch ID sensor in the iPhone 5s.

Related Roundup: Apple Watch 10
Buyer's Guide: Apple Watch (Caution)

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
apple watch ultra 2 new black

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Finally Coming After Two-Year Hiatus

Monday June 16, 2025 8:45 am PDT by
Apple will finally deliver the Apple Watch Ultra 3 sometime this year, according to analyst Jeff Pu of GF Securities Hong Kong (via @jukanlosreve). The analyst expects both the Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 to arrive this year (likely alongside the new iPhone 17 lineup, if previous launches are anything to go by), according to his latest product roadmap shared with...
Logitech Logo Feature

Logitech Announces Two New Accessories for WWDC

Friday June 13, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro. The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
apple watch ultra snow

6 Features Coming to the Apple Watch Ultra 3

Tuesday February 25, 2025 9:00 am PST by
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements. While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way. By the time the ...
terminal macos tahoe

Apple's Terminal App Gets Colorful Redesign in macOS Tahoe

Monday June 16, 2025 4:12 am PDT by
Apple's Terminal app is getting a visual refresh in macOS Tahoe, and it's the first notable design update since the command-line tool debuted. The updated Terminal will support 24-bit color and Powerline fonts, according to Apple's State of the Platforms presentation at WWDC25. The app will also adopt the new Liquid Glass aesthetic with redesigned themes that align with macOS 26's broader...

Top Rated Comments

Peel Avatar
149 months ago
Could these two look any different?
She looks like a hip designer, he looks like a corporate lawyer.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mr. Retrofire Avatar
149 months ago
Could these two look any different?
She looks like a hip designer, he looks like a corporate lawyer.
Good to know, that we don't have prejudices.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
taptic Avatar
149 months ago
That magenta hair doesn't look too healthy.

It must be natural... nobody does that to themselves on purpose.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ColeMayfield Avatar
149 months ago
She's definitely a fan of iOS 7...
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
/dev/toaster Avatar
149 months ago
It must be natural... nobody does that to themselves on purpose.

I did :P

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/q73/s720x720/1385996_10202190042571988_1067944456_n.jpg
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
IJ Reilly Avatar
149 months ago
That magenta hair doesn't look too healthy.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)