Apple has made clear in recent years that it’s pushing into health. And now a new report suggests it’s doing it with help from medical doctors.
Over the last few years, Apple has hired nearly 50 medical doctors at various roles inside its company, CNBC is reporting, citing sources and its own evaluation of LinkedIn profiles. While the news outlet’s sources stopped short of saying exactly what those doctors are doing, they believe the doctors are helping Apple actually work to address medical problems through its products.
Apple (AAPL) has been slowly but surely moving into the health and wellness arena in recent years. The company’s Health app baked into its iOS on iPhone and iPad allows users to track their daily steps, store medical information for emergencies, and more. In its Apple Watch, the company tracks movement and heart rate and will tell people when they’re sitting for too long. Apple this year even launched a new echocardiogram feature that tracks an Apple Watch user’s heart and alerts them when there’s trouble.
Still, there have been some who worry that Apple and other companies that offer smartwatches that provide tools to generally healthy people who might want to seek out problems where there are none. New data from researcher eMarketer suggests people aged 55 and older are driving smartwatch popularity, thanks in no small part to health tracking.
The CNBC report, however, suggests Apple’s decision to hire medical doctors across its company is about finding answers to real medical problems and using its tools to help people in critical ways. Exactly how it would do that is unknown. And not surprisingly, the secretive Apple isn’t discussing its plans publicly.
Fortune has reached out to Apple for further comment.
