Apple has made its interest in the health industry clear over the last several years with features like HealthKit, the Apple Watch, and more. Today, a new report from CNBC details discord within the Health team at Apple, including an increase in departures.
The report details that there’s been a divide among Apple’s Health team over the direction of the initiative going forward. Thus far, Apple’s health efforts have been focused on features geared towards iPhone and Apple Watch users. Some employees feel, however, that there is an opportunity to “tackle bigger challenges with the health care system, such as medical devices, telemedicine and health payments.”
A portion of Apple’s Health team reportedly wanted to specifically introduce a telemedicine service and move into health payments but was unsuccessful. Another portion wanted to do more with Beddit, the sleep tracking company Apple acquired in 2017.
As such, Apple has seen several notable departures among its health team recently. Just last week, the Gates Foundation hired researcher Andrew Trister from Apple. CNBC now details other recent personnel changes:
Those aren’t all of the changes, though, with many researchers, health regulators, engineers, and more having all departed Apple within the last few years, according to CNBC.
The Health team at Apple currently reports to Jeff Williams. Following an employee morale survey that indicated discontent among the team, Williams reportedly personally reached out to employees to help solve the problem. CNBC notes, however, that Williams is only able to dedicate so much time to the Health team, therefore placing responsibility in the hands of its other higher-ups.
This includes Kevin Lynch, who oversees software, Eugene Kim, the Watch hardware leave, and Sumbul Desai, who leads Apple’s AC Wellness health clinics, the ECG app on Apple Watch, general health strategy, and the Apple Heart study.
The CNBC piece offers many other details on the structure of Apple’s Health team and is absolutely worth a read. Ultimately, the employees who spoke to CNBC about these tensions “noted that health does still remain a strategic priority for Apple.”
