Apple in 2016 considered launching its own subscription-based healthcare service, which would include “Apple doctors” at clinics for customers, says a report by The Wall Street Journal.
The project, which has been dropped due to internal concerns, was designed to offers Apple users a healthcare service that would integrate health data collected by a user’s Apple Watch and iPhone.
One of its most ambitious healthcare ideas was a plan to offer primary-care medicine, conceived in 2016, according to documents and the people familiar with the plan. An Apple team spent months trying to figure out how the flood of health and wellness data collected from users of its smartwatch, first released in 2015, might be used to improve healthcare, the people said.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has said one of Apple’s greatest contributions to humanity will be in health, and at one point, its biggest idea of that contribution would be its own healthcare service.
One of its most ambitious healthcare ideas was a plan to offer primary-care medicine, conceived in 2016, according to documents and the people familiar with the plan. An Apple team spent months trying to figure out how the flood of health and wellness data collected from users of its smartwatch, first released in 2015, might be used to improve healthcare, the people said.
The team decided one of the best ways to realize that vision was to provide a medical service of its own, said people familiar with the plan, linking data generated by Apple devices with virtual and in-person care provided by Apple doctors. Apple would offer primary care, but also continuous health monitoring as part of a subscription-based personalized health program, according to these people and the documents.
Back in 2017, Apple set up testbeds for its proposed healthcare service in health clinics near its Apple Park headquarters. The project was managed by Dr Sumbul Desai, of Stanford University. Testing continues at those clinics to this day.
However, some employees, including midlevel managers, have criticized how the group discourages “critical feedback.” The unit allegedly provided inaccurate data about the performance of the test clinics, says the WSJ report
Employees concerned about the culture pointed to a 2019 meeting during which a midlevel manager raised questions about data, according to people familiar with the meeting and the documents. Dr. Desai responded angrily, leading some present to conclude that critical questions were unwelcome, according to the people and the documents. The manager left Apple weeks later, and the episode contributed to her departure, documents show.
The idea of Apple launching a healthcare service has stalled internally, and the company is reportedly instead concentrating on first building its health infrastructure through more robust and meaningful health features for the Apple Watch, iPhone, and various health studies.
