This morning Fitbit became the latest tech giant to unveil a new coronavirus feature. Users of the Fitbit app will now be able to use the new feature to connect with a doctor virtually and access information on exercising indoors.
The new feature, which is live today, will be a new tab at the bottom of the app labelled COVID-19, and include the latest updates from the World Health Organization...
Fitbit has announced the latest member of its fitness tracker lineup, the Fitbit Charge 4, alongside new fitness-minded features and new content for Fitbit Premium.
The new device's standout feature is onboard GPS to enable features like an exercise heat map, which helps users review where in a running or biking route they were working the hardest.
It returns with the Sp02 sensor of its...
Two medical research organizations have kicked off new efforts this week that seek to use consumer-health wearables to identify or event predict the onset of disease.
The first is the DETECT (Digital Engagement & Tracking for Early Control & Treatment) Study, headed by the Scripps Research Translational Institute. It combines heart-rate, activity and sleep data collected through a range...
Fitbit and Belgium-based FibriCheck have extended their partnership to bring the latter’s atrial fibrillation detection app to four new countries in the EU: France, Germany, Italy and Spain. It was previously made available to Fitbit smartwatch users in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium back in September 2019.
“For more than a decade, Fitbit has helped millions of people around the...
The accuracy of wearables employing photoplethysmography (PPG)-based heart rate sensors may vary significantly between specific devices and activity types, but these sensors’ performances do not appear to be significantly affected by the skin tone of the wearer, according to a new study published in NPJ Digital Medicine.
The investigation, conducted by Duke University researchers among 53...
Resting heart rate and sleep duration data collected from Fitbit devices could help inform timely and accurate models of population-level influenza trends, according to a new Scripps Research Translational Institute study published online in The Lancet Digital Health last Friday.
“Currently, CDC [influenza-like illness (ILI)] data are typically reported [one to three] weeks late and reported...
Fitbit users were surprised with an added feature on their wearable this week — the ability to check the variability of oxygen levels in their bloodstream.
Users with any of Fitbit’s Sp02-enabled devices can now access an Estimated Oxygen Variation graph. The Sp2 devices include the Charge 3, Ionic, Versa, Versa Lite and Versa 2, according to Fitbit officials.
The update, which was confirmed to...
“What we have tracked and seen in the last four years is a very vibrant ecosystem, which was in the past, very e-commerce health focused to nowadays, very sophisticated with AI drug discovery, clinical trials and digital therapeutics etc. In 2018, the total amount of venture capital that was invested in Asia Pacific amounted to about $6.8B. To put in context, in the US it is $8.2B and $2B for...
It’s been a big year for Google’s parent company Alphabet. Once upon a time, Google’s role in the health world was chiefly associated with "Googling" symptoms, but much has changed for the Silicon Valley giant. This year Google made major moves in the health industry—making waves when it announced a plan to acquire Fitbit and even dipping into the EHR space by demoing a new search feature. ...
Not so fast? Google’s plans to purchase Fitbit will soon be under the US Department of Justice’s lens. According to a New York Post report, the merger raised antitrust flags at both the DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission, with the former federal agency ultimately winning out.
The Post’s sources said that both of these agencies are hesitant to allow Google an even greater view into individuals’...
