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

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 health keynote
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.

apple research app
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 Watch Body Temperature Finished
"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.

Top Rated Comments

TheYayAreaLiving ? Avatar
18 months ago
Fitness #1. I’m glad Apple is expending more in the health industry.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DeepWebinar Avatar
18 months ago

If they really cared about human health, they wouldn’t stop making LCD iPhones
They care about Health™, not health.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
thejadedmonkey Avatar
18 months ago

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.
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.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MrMojo1 Avatar
18 months ago

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.
The AW isn't a medical device hence probably why many healthcare providers still don't embrace it.
Even Apple stated publicly not to consider the AW a medical device but for fitness which there is a big difference.
The general public should also learn the difference and stop being ignorant of that fact.
Having said that... the healthcare industry is slowly opening up that fitness devices are appearing and that the general public is slowly embracing them, using it as an indicator of their health so the industry should at least start being more open-minded about the various devices.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Joe_ Avatar
18 months ago
I hope Apple explores more in this space.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jz0309 Avatar
18 months ago

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.
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).
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 16

iOS 16.4 Now Available for Your iPhone With These 8 New Features

Friday March 31, 2023 8:55 am PDT by
Following six weeks of beta testing, iOS 16.4 was released to the public this week. The software update includes a handful of new features and changes for the iPhone 8 and newer. To install an iOS update, open the Settings app on the iPhone, tap General → Software Update, and follow the on-screen instructions. Below, we have recapped eight new features and changes added with iOS 16.4,...
CarPlay Phone Call

General Motors to Phase Out Apple CarPlay Starting This Year in EV Transition

Friday March 31, 2023 8:43 am PDT by
General Motors (GM) will phase out Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in its vehicles starting this year, shifting to a built-in infotainment system co-developed with Google (via Reuters). GM owns Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC in the United States. It will stop offering Apple CarPlay and Android Auto starting with the 2024 Chevrolet Blazer, which goes on sale this summer. The company plans ...
iOS 17 on Phone Feature

Three New iOS Features Coming to Your iPhone Following Apple Music Classical

Thursday March 30, 2023 7:13 am PDT by
With the Apple Music Classical app and an Apple Pay Later early access program now available, the list of previously-announced iOS features that have yet to launch is beginning to shrink. However, there are still a few features we are waiting for. Below, we have recapped three more iOS features that are expected to launch in 2023, including an Apple Card savings account for Daily Cash,...
wwdc 2023

Three Products We Might See at WWDC 2023

Friday March 31, 2023 3:37 pm PDT by
Apple this week announced the official dates for the 34th annual Worldwide Developers Conference, with the annual WWDC keynote event set to take place on Monday, June 5. The keynote is where Apple unveils new versions of iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS, and sometimes, we get hardware announcements. Rumors this year suggest there are at least three new devices that are set to be unveiled in the ...
iPhone 15 Pro Multi Purpose button Mute Switch Feature Green 2

iPhone 15 Pro Solid-State Button Sensitivity Can Be Customized to Cater for Cases and Gloves

Thursday March 30, 2023 11:36 pm PDT by
iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max users will be able to customize the sensitivity of the solid-state buttons on their device, thanks to a new sensitivity toggle in Settings. That's according to details provided by a hitherto reliable source that shared additional details on the MacRumors forums. Earlier this week, the same anonymous tipster revealed that the iPhone 15 Pro models will use...
apple mixed reality headset concept by david lewis and marcus kane

Kuo: Apple Mixed-Reality Headset May Not Appear at WWDC as Mass Production Pushed Back Yet Again

Thursday March 30, 2023 4:50 am PDT by
Apple has again pushed back mass production of its mixed-reality headset and the device may not appear at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today said. Apple headset concept by David Lewis and Marcus Kane In a tweet, Kuo explained that Apple "isn't very optimistic" about whether the headset will be able to create an "iPhone moment." As a result,...
iPhone 15 Pro Periscope Mock Feature

Periscope Camera Lens Exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro Max Will Be Supplied by Largan

Thursday March 30, 2023 1:18 am PDT by
The periscope camera lens that will be exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro Max will be solely supplied by Largan, according to the 相機鏡頭中獲利-apple-camera-lens-suppliers-face-two-risks-high-53db8da990b2">latest no by Apple industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Rumors about the iPhone getting a periscope lens have been circulating since early 2020, when Kuo first mentioned the possibility. The analyst...