Sina Science and Technology News on the evening of August 19, Beijing time, it is reported that four people familiar with the matter said todayAppleThe company is scaling back a key project in its health department, the HealthHabit application.
Through HealthHabit, Apple IncEmployees can record fitness goals, manage high blood pressure, and talk to AC Wellness clinicians and coaches. AC Wellness is a health clinic dedicated to providing services to Apple Inc employees and their families.
According to the report, more than 50 employees are in charge of the HealthHabit app. But if some of them cannot find other positions within Apple Inc in the coming weeks, they will be fired with severance pay, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Apple Inc declined to comment.
Obviously, the decision is a setback to Apple Inc's medical ambitions, as HealthHabit is the biggest project in Apple Inc Health Clinic. Apple Inc took over the clinics from startup Crossover Health in 2018. The goal was to use these clinics to experiment with new medical services, and the HealthHabit app aims to turn some of the clinic-related research into products.
HealthHabit is part of Apple Health, an organization of hundreds of engineers, project managers, data scientists, designers and doctors who oversee consumer functions such as Apple Inc's clinic, heart rate and fitness tools, as well as secret digital health bets.
A person familiar with the matter said that HealthHabit may continue to exist in the future, but the staff and functions will be reduced; of course, it may also be completely shut down. Another person familiar with the matter said some of its functions would be transferred to AC Wellness to run the project more effectively because AC Wellness's clinicians and coaches were already providing staff care.
June this yearAlphabet Inc-CL CIt has also restructured its health unit (Google Health), and about 130 employees have been transferred to other departments. Alphabet Inc-CL CDavid Feinberg, head of the health department, said the changes would increase the department's impact and speed of implementation. As Alphabet Inc-CL C pays more attention to the health business, the department will support Alphabet Inc-CL C's broader work.