Hot on the heels of Apple’s current play for seniors, wearable-technology-company Fitbit (NYSE: FIT) is magnifying its efforts to avoid and handle chronic conditions health illness.
San Francisco-based Fitbit revealed Wednesday the launch of Fitbit Care, a platform that integrates health training and virtual care with Fitbit’s wearable gadgets to provide individualized interventions. The brand-new platform isn’t really intended particularly at seniors although it might show helpful for people over 65 living with persistent conditions such as diabetes and heart illness.
Wise Gadgets Increase
The senior living market has seen an increase of wise gadgets that might help older grownups, consisting of voice-activated assistants and wearable innovation.
“With healthcare expenses and rates of persistent and chronic illness increasing, there is a clear requirement for ingenious tools and services to assist individuals to make the way of life and habits modifications needed to reverse this pattern,” Adam Pellegrini, basic supervisor of Fitbit Health Solutions, stated. “Expanding our collaboration with Humana enables us to accelerate our typical objective of assisting more individuals to get and remain healthy, and I’m positive that together we can assist with and drive much better health results.”
New Fitbit Care
Louisville, Kentucky-based Humana likewise picked the tech business’s brand-new Fitbit Care platform as a favored health training service for the insurance company’s members. Fitbit and Humana have been partners since 2013. Throughout that time, Humana has taken an eager interest in senior care, generally, through its acquisitions of Kindred at Home and Curo Health Services, both backed by personal equity companies TPG Capital and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe.
“Working with Fitbit, we have had the ability to offer our members wearable gadgets that gain insights and information they can utilize to attain their finest health goals,” Humana Senior Vice President of Wellness Solutions Jeff Reid stated. “By including Fitbit Care’ chronic conditions health coaching and brand-new health training abilities, we can use a lot more individualized, significant assistance to our members who are concentrated on particular health objectives, such as smoking cigarettes cessation or weight-loss or the management or avoidance of persistent conditions that are chronic.”
The Fitbit Care platform is partly driven by the scientific know-how of Twine Health, a training platform that Fitbit obtained in February. Through the platform, coaches can deal with users through several channels, such as in-app interactions, phone, and in-person conferences.
Eye-Opening Statistics
As much as 60% of American adults presently deal with a minimum of one persistent condition, inning accordance with a 2017 RAND research study.
Possibly a lot more striking, about 1 in every 4 Americans has numerous chronic conditions, those that last a year or more and need continuous medical attention or that limits the activities of day-to-day living, in accordance with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number increases to 3 in 4 Americans aged 65 and older.
Tech Rivals Emerge
Fitbit’s rollout of Fitbit Care, in addition to its growing relationship with Humana, enables the business to equal other wearable-tech rivals contending for areas as options within the continuum of care. Those rivals consist of Cupertino, California-based Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), and its newest smartwatch gadget, efficient in discovering falls and notifying emergency situation services.
Chronic conditions health care isn’t anything new, but technology makes it easier for everyone.
