Health tracking ring maker Oura announced today that he has appointed Dr. Ricky Bloomfield as the first chief medical officer. Before that, he worked as a clinical and health information officer at Apple Health and supervised the launch of several functions, including Apple’s health records for the iPhone.
Dr. Bloom Field said together Mobihealthnews We will expand the company’s medical programs and partnerships, guarantee regulatory compliance, and cooperate with our team to develop new hardware and software features.
Mobihealthnews: What is your plan for us as the first chief medical officer of the company?
Dr. Ricky Bloomfield: We have already done a lot of great things before we arrive, and we have made excellent products based on science.
One of the things that really attracted me was that they actually made the most accessible wearable device. Easy to wear 7 days a week. It is easy to wear at night. It lasts for up to 8 days at a fee and can be used by everyone regardless of the platform. When I want to work with an insurance company or to work with a health system or health technology company, I think that interesting opportunities in medical services actually unlock because they want to provide products or services to everyone regardless of age, socioeconomic status or other indicators.
If we look at the wearable ecosystem over time, it is not old, and we have gone fast in a world where you have a few people. The Biohacker type is a type of bio hacker wearing this device curiosity in super alcohol. Almost everyone walks around has a kind of device and provides them with insights every day. And now people begin to bring such insights and information to the doctor and “Well, what do you think?”
So it is a place where we think that we are reaching this inflection point, and I hope that I can help you to focus on partnerships and opportunities that can help the company to improve the lives of many people who can be possible. I think we all want to have the greatest influence we can do, and I think this is in a unique position we can try to use momentum.
MHN: Do you think that kind of partnership will be beneficial to us?
Bloom Field: Korean has already configured some of these partnerships. Last year, you may have seen an ESSENCE, DEXCOM, and the most recently presented Lumeris. So you have already begun to understand the types of partnerships that are already interested in improving the health of the population for partnerships with insurers such as Essence, which is very consistent with our interests.
And it is really complicated and difficult because everyone is in different stages in their lives because everyone is different. Therefore, there are many things to do on both sides to identify the most beneficial methods, and there are many discussions that insurance companies can be interested in and tie ties and are interested in health systems. So I think we are right in the middle and try to find out with them.
Health care is team sports. Since a company is not able to solve it by itself, I think it should be humble and open to the best solution. So I think that creating such a partnership and working with them is an opportunity to benefit from the excellent data provided by these devices.
MHN: How can we help monitor remote patients?
Bloom Field: All remote patients monitoring situations may vary slightly, and of course the demands will be different. But for example, if someone gets out of the surgery, you want to know how well you go to the baseline before surgery.
I share some high levels of thoughts that brainstorming here and not presenting products or other products, but it’s important for almost every intervention you can imagine, how well you are sleeping.
What is the user’s baseline and how do you come back? And how do we have objective data that helps us understand when we reach the standard? And these are everything that can be used today, and the user thinks that the data is already affecting medical trips.
MHN: You previously worked at Apple Health. How will your experience be transferred to Oura? What can you get to the company?
Bloom Field: Yes, I liked eight and a half years in Apple. The team will continue to do great and amazing things. It was very interesting to be a member of the journey, and I think that teaching me is the value that creates an amazing and subtle user experience, helps users where the users are, help to create wearable products, and access data.
Some of my work helped users to access clinical data in health systems and clinics. This is because it is very important to approach your condition, clinical notes or drugs, and signs of life.
And when we think about the future, users, and access to our data, I think it’s really important to consider the whole person, and it’s important to complete the clinical data and the picture as well as the sensor data they can get.
As us Partnership with Dexcom has a world of metabolic health, and in that example, it helps to understand these objective metrics, such as glucose, and of course other laboratory values outside.
Therefore, when we think about collecting everything together, you have a picture of half of the data that you can access, and when you start to fill a part of the picture, you can start making a complete picture, so you can have many downstream opportunities for preventive treatment and more detailed instructions.
One of the areas focused on us is artificial intelligence. Of course, there are many overlooked advertising now. It is obviously buzz word, but what is important to us is how we use this technology to create a meaningful improvement for someone’s health. Of course, this AI technology has been used throughout the product over time. All the algorithms used in the ring for all metrics are based on machine learning models in the form of AI.
When people talk about AI today, they often refer to creation AI and large language models, and they are an amazing work that draws insight into large amounts of data, but these models also depend on having excellent data and high quality data. In fact, garbage comes out. Therefore, if you can actually start with high -quality data as provided by ourring, if you have been proven to clinical metrics such as ECG and heart rate and HRV, you will actually open the opportunity for tasks that can be performed with these models. So I am very happy to collect everything and create a personalized and meaningful AI experience for users.
