Fitbit beefs up healthcare offering with fitness and coaching platform

Wearables firm Fitbit has launched a healthcare platform for corporate customers in the US that offers health coaching, digital interventions and personalised care plans.

Fitbit Care combines the company’s activity-tracking hardware with tailored health and wellness services for insurers, employers and health systems.

Designed to promote wellness and improve disease management and prevention, the new enterprise offering will support basic fitness tracking as well as more personalised services such as medication adherence, smoking cessation and management for chronic conditions like diabetes.

Those enrolled onto the care plans also have access to health coaches, who will offer personalised wellness advice and fitness and exercise plans through a combination of remote communication and face-to-face meetings.

Fitbit Care is being offered through the company’s business-to-business unit, Fitbit Health Solutions.

Dr John Moore, medical director of Fitbit Health Solutions, said: “With Fitbit Care we are delivering a solution that empowers people to take control of their health, by providing the accountability, support, guidance and resources that remove some of the most difficult barriers to behaviour change.

“Supporting patients beyond the walls of the doctor’s office is one of the most important things we can do to drive successful outcomes, and as a clinician I see great potential for Fitbit Care to help tackle some of the biggest challenges in healthcare and improve health outcomes at scale.”

Fitbit Care pulls together the company’s popular activity-tracking devices and the health coaching platform it acquired via its acquisition of Twine Health in February this year.

It follows similar moves into the healthcare system from the likes of Apple and Amazon, as tech firms size up opportunities beyond the consumer space.

Apple has recently broken out its core health records API to third-party app developers, meanwhile the latest version of its Apple Watch is a distinct step-up in terms of clinical capabilities, enabling wearers to capture echocardiogram data that could be shared with clinicians.

New app

Individuals who are enrolled in the health coaching component of Fitbit will have access to the new Fitbit Plus app, which offers personalised health coaching and allows users to track metrics including blood glucose, blood pressure, and medication adherence, both from Fitbit and other third-party connected devices.

It will also promote “healthy behaviour” through social groups, with the idea that this will encourage users to motivate each other and exercise together.

Adam Pellegrini, general manager of Fitbit Health Solutions, said: “With the introduction of Fitbit Care, we continue to expand our healthcare offerings with a new, bundled subscription offering that can help improve outcomes for some of the most common and costly conditions in healthcare, such as diabetes and hypertension

“This unique offering will allow us to better support our 1,600-plus enterprise health customers and the 100-plus health plans that we work with through a comprehensive platform that can help deliver positive, lasting outcomes for their employees and members.”