LifeScan, a Johnson and Johnson company, just announced that its companion app, Reveal, for people with diabetes who use the OneTouch Verio Sync Meter, now enables data sharing with third party apps through Apple's HealthKit. The new functionality means Verio and Reveal users can now easily share their glucose numbers with any other health app that connects through Apple's HealthKit exchange....
Before Apple revealed the Apple Watch, rumors circulated that because public records showed the company had met with FDA officials a few times, Apple was working on an advanced, sensor-laden wearable device with medical features that required FDA clearance. At the time, back in early 2014 I made the case that Apple was actually trying to ensure its wearable didn't trip a regulatory third rail and...
San Francisco-based AliveCor, which offers smartphone-enabled ECG devices, has announced former Google SVP Vic Gundotra as its new CEO.
Gundotra, who left Google in 2014 after eight years -- including a few heading up Google+, replaces Euan Thomson, an AliveCor board member and Khosla Ventures investor, who assumed the role of interim CEO in 2013. Gundotra becomes AliveCor's fourth CEO in almost...
Based on its recently revealed third quarter results, Fitbit continues to grow on nearly all fronts. The company also told investors that it believes that launch of the Apple Watch has had no material effect on Fitbit's business to date:
"So, in terms of Apple: We haven't seen any material impact on our results," Fitbit Chairman and CEO James Park told investors during the company's quarterly...
At the mHealth Summit next week, MobiHealthNews is hosting a breakfast panel discussion: Digital Health's Disruption of Pharma. We'll kick things off Tuesday November 10 at 7 a.m. If you'd like to attend be sure to select the breakfast as an add-on when you register for the summit. As a thank you, use the discount code: MHEALTH50 to get 50 percent off your mHealth Summit registration.
I'll be...
Fitbit Surge
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), which puts on the massive CES event in Las Vegas every January, just published a set of voluntary guidelines for how technology companies should approach privacy and security for personal wellness data collected by wearable devices and other connected wellness devices.
The CEA said the guidelines represent a consensus among its member...
The more than 76 million baby boomers in the US are a ripe market for companies building digital health devices and services, but few such companies have successfully designed their offerings for the demographic. That's one of the preliminary conclusions of a recently published California HealthCare Foundation report called Baby Steps: Will Boomers Buy into Mobile Health?, written by Laurie Orlov...
Palo Alto-based consumer health startup Better, which counts the Mayo Clinic's venture arm and the Social+Capital Partnership as investors, is closing up shop at the end of the month, according to statements made by the company on its website and on Twitter. During an interview on-stage at the Rock Health Summit earlier this week, Better investor Chamath Palihapitiya reportedly told the audience...
Mobile health company WellDoc's former chief strategy and commercial officer Chris Bergstrom has joined the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as an associate director in the company's healthcare practice. Bergstrom left WellDoc, where he remains an investor, at the beginning of 2015 but served as an advisor for some months afterward.
As a member of WellDoc's founding team, Bergstrom was instrumental...
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has charged the marketers of a vision improvement app, called UltimEyes, with deceptively claiming they their program was scientifically proven to improve the user's eye sight. The company behind the app, Carrot Neurotechnology, and its co-owners Adam Goldberg and Aaron Seitz have agreed to pay $150,000 and to stop citing the claims. Notably, the $5.99 app is...
