Two recent deals are shining the spotlight on the mobile health and fitness industry.
The biggest is the $100-million-plus acquisition of BodyMedia by Jawbone, a San Francisco-based developer of audio and fitness products that just two months ago acquired mHealth startup Massive Health. BodyMedia, based in Pittsburgh, has been an mHealth stalwart, offering what it touts as the only wearable health technology platform of its kind that is registered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a Class 1 medical device.
"There's an enormous appetite for personal data and self-discovery among consumers and that will only continue to grow," said Jawbone CEO and founder Hosain Rahman in an April 30 press release. "Together, BodyMedia and Jawbone have almost three decades worth of deep tech, science and intellectual property around sophisticated sensors on the body, and nearly 300 issued and pending patents around wearable technology. We look forward to pushing new boundaries, creating new markets and showing people what's truly possible with wearable computing."
In an interview with Tech Crunch, Rahman said the combination of Jawbone and BodyMedia's 60-person workforce will create new opportunities for the combined company's products in the insurance field and with medical clinics.
BodyMedia CEO Christine Robins, who spoke at both the Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance's Convergence Summit last year in San Diego and the Digital Health Summit at CEA's Consumer Electronics Show this past January in Las Vegas, pointed out that her company has more than 14 years of experience in the fast-moving industry and 87 patents, and "has amassed one of the largest living databases of raw and real-world human sensor data from its patented multi-sensor body monitors with over 500 trillion sensor points collected and analyzed over the company's history."
"Jawbone's deep expertise with consumer technology, design and building products that fit seamlessly into people's lives is the best way to carry forward many of the innovations that BodyMedia has developed over the past 14 years," she said in the press release. "We are eager to pair our depth of insight and IP with Jawbone's expertise so that together, we can make an even bigger impact on people's health and help them achieve their goals."
Also on April 30, Health Reviser, a Seattle-based developer of health and fitness monitoring applications, announced that it has acquired FitPal, which focuses on mobile apps that promote safe and effective fitness.
Health Reviser's products focus on heart rate variability analysis, which is used to assess body age, overall health and fitness dynamics.
“The future of simple and non-invasive health monitoring, fitness assessment and stress management starts with preventive heart rate variability analysis, a technology that scans autonomic nervous system and reveals health conditions before any symptoms occur,” said Alexander Bandarchuk, Health Reviser's CEO, in a press release. “Consumers can now use their cell phones or computers to access Health Reviser products to monitor their health, biological age, fitness and stress levels. They can see the instant changes in their health, caused by the lifestyle change, diet or exercises. Viewing health trends on the computer screen and taking an early action is far better than feeling the pain and poisoning the body with chemicals, when it’s already too late.”
“Technologies are playing an important role in helping people improve their health and fitness by providing a visual link to feedback from the body," he added. "Before only pain warranted a visit to the doctor’s office, or served as a reminder for an annual checkup. Now computers notify us of slight changes to our health on a daily basis that can be caused by anything, including diseases that are progressing in weeks or even days."
