Dive Brief:
- Apple has hired Duke University health IT expert Dr. Ricky Bloomfield to join its health team, mobihealthnews reports.
- Bloomfield, a physician and director of mobile strategy at Duke, helped to implement Apple’s HealthKit at Duke’s medical center in 2014 and he implemented ResearchKit two years later to study how autism manifests in children.
- This is the third high-profile health team hire Apple has made this year.
Insight:
Apple has not said what role Bloomfield will play at the company.
In September, the tech giant hired Toronto physician Mike Evans, then head of digital preventive medicine at Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, to focus on worldwide health innovation. Other recent hires include Stanford University pediatric endocrinologist Rajiv Kumar, who used HealthKit to help patient manage diabetes, and Sage Bionetworks President and co-founder Stephen Friend. Sage created the data infrastructure for some of the ResearchKit apps.
Apple has made no secret of its desire for a share of the healthcare pie. The company has been building credibility with HealthKit, ResearchKit ,and CareKit. And in August, Apple purchased its first digital health company--personal health records startup Gliimpse--causing speculation about other acquisitions down the road.
The company has also touted the potential for the Apple Watch to disrupt healthcare by acting as an early warning system of health issues before they become problematic.