Apple’s key to its health ambitions: Class II Apple Watch features

The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple has an internal project codenamed “Casper,” which has explored the possibility of creating an Apple primary care network. While “Casper” is still an active initiative, Loup Ventures’ Gene Munster and David Stokman believe it’ll be unlikely that Apple will builds a public-facing primary health care network, but instead see the company’s health ambitions anchored in devices, like Apple Watch, and data that can be leveraged by healthcare clinicians.

Gene Munster and David Stokman for Loup Ventures:

To achieve this, Apple must secure more Class II-grade medical device features for Watch and potentially AirPods. Class II designations give healthcare providers the legal confidence to trust and use the data these devices collect.

We think of Apple’s health initiatives as composed of three building blocks.

Building block #1: data capture. The foundation of Apple’s health offerings is data capture through the Watch, which today measures heart rate, Afib, blood oxygen levels, ECG, and fall detection. In the future, blood pressure and blood glucose monitoring are logical next features, showing Watch has room to grow as a data collection device…

Building block #2: data sharing. The second building block is data sharing, which we see as analogous to APIs and middleware, the mundane but essential layer that sits between the data capture device and third-party healthcare providers, such as physicians, insurers, and the broader primary care network. Apple’s expertise in devices, software, privacy and security makes this opportunity well within the company’s reach.

Building block #3: delivering care. The final layer in an integrated health stack is delivering care itself, which is essentially the interaction with a physician.

MacDailyNews Take: As for non-invasive blood glucose monitoring, it’s a long shot. Many have tried and failed. If Apple can accomplish it, already strong Apple Watch sales will accelerate into the stratosphere.

If* non-invasive blood glucose monitoring is achieved, Apple Watch would become the essential device for hundreds of millions of people with diabetes.

According to the International Diabetes Federation, approximately 463 million adults (20-79 years) were living with diabetes; by 2045 this will rise to 700 million.

*It’s a big “IF.” Non-invasive continuous glucose monitoring would indeed be the “holy grail for treating diabetes.