Fitbit in talks with the NHS
News has emerged this week about Fitbit being in talks with the NHS about wearables. Fitbit Co-founder and Chief Executive James Park, has spoken to the Sunday Times, said talks had taken place with executives in the health service but no firm plans had been agreed.
The news comes almost two years after NHS England announced moves to promote wearables to monitor patients with long-term conditions.
In June 2015, Tim Kelsey, the former NHS England national director for patients and information, said that by 2018 members of the public will be able to add data from wearable devices to their electronic patient record. But there have been few details in the two years since the announcement.
The 2015 target came as part of a commitment to give patients real-time access to their full electronic health record by 2018.
A deal with health insurer UnitedHealthcare in the US saves users cash in terms of a cheaper premium based on how much exercise they take using data monitored from the wristband.
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt said the NHS would “make very big moves in the next 12 months into apps and wearables” late last year. NHS England now has an app library which recommends reputable health apps to patients.
Wearables were once seen as an up-and-coming area of technology but have gone off the boil in recent years after failing to live up to the hype as a consumer must-have device.
Fitbit has made cutbacks recently and is said to have lost more than 80 per cent of its value since its IPO in 2015. The firm is now seeking to work more with businesses wanting to provide “wellness programmes” for employees, health insurers and other parts of the healthcare system in a bid to turn the company around.