Apple Hires Medtech Talent in Pursuit of iWatch Wow Factor

Although reports tracing and speculating on Apple's progress on wearable medical devices have been periodically surfacing since 2011, the company itself has remained mum about its plans. A search of Apple's website for the terms "wearable medical" delivers exactly one hit--a story about how Medtronic uses iPads. Still, the usual suspects are once again all a-twitter with another round of wondering centering around recent reports of new hires for the iWatch development team.

The platform itself could be used as a health-monitor of sorts, potentially tracking everything from heart rate, activity, skin temperature, and sleep quality. The firm has also hired a number of people with experience designing technology for tracking sleep.

Last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook opined that wearable devices could potentially serve as a powerful tool to change users' behavior. "Can [a wearable] change somebody's behavior? The book hasn't been written on that yet."

The website 9to5Mac.com's Mark Gurman is widely credited with breaking the story that Nancy Dougherty (one of MD+DI's 40 Under 40 in 2012) has been snatched up from blood-monitoring startup Sano Intelligence. In addition, Apple hired away Ravi Narasimhan from his post as vice president of R&D, biosensor technology at medtech startup Vital Connect. According to Gurman, the two will be working on hardware development for the iWatch.

On Dougherty's LinkedIn page she describes herself as the "Hardware Lead" at Sano, "solely responsible for electrical design, testing, and bring-up as well as system integration" for Sano's transdermal patch that, the company says, will soon be able to monitor glucose levels, kidney function, and electrolyte balance. She previously worked as a senior electrical engineer for device systems at Proteus Digital Health, the maker of an ingestible wireless pharmaceutical tablet tracker.

According to Fast Company, which apparently got a look at a prototype of Sano's device,"There are enough probes on the wireless, battery-powered chip to continuously test up to a hundred different samples, and 30% to 40% of today's blood diagnostics are compatible with the device. It's cheap, too, with a materials cost of just $1 or $2 per sensor (each sensor has a seven day lifespan) thanks to an efficient manufacturing process that's similar to what's currently used to make semiconductor chips. The device isn't waterproof yet, but Sano is working on it."

Narasimhan was formerly vice president of R&D, biosensor technology, at Vital Connect. His LinkedIn page describes his experience in research and development on biosensors, machine learning, systems biology and computational biology and his expertise in biomedical algorithms, data analysis and wireless technologies. At Vital Connect he was "responsible for biosensor technology and algorithms for remote physiological monitoring with wearable medical devices." He says this sensor processing included ECG, respiration, human fall detection, posture and activity. Narasimhan also claims "over 40 patents granted and over 15 pending."

As reported by Gurman, "Of course, it is not certain that the work of either Narasimhan or Dougherty will directly appear in an Apple wearable computer or other device. What this information does indicate, however, is that Apple is growing its team of medical sensor specialists by hiring some of the world's most forward-thinking experts in seamless mobile medical technologies."

Still, considering their new employer, perhaps it's not surprising that two fashion designers, Ben Shaffer, formerly Nike's design director, and Paul Deneve, former Yves Saint Laurent CEO, were signed before the iCompany inked deals with the new hardware talent.