Apple is zeroing in on health tracking with its Tueo Health acquisition (AAPL)

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In its latest move to edge deeper into healthcare, Apple snapped up California-based digital health startup Tueo Health, which helps parents track their children’s asthma symptoms while they’re asleep, according to CNBC.

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Apple isn’t timid when it comes to acquisitions: It buys a company every two to three weeks — but it’s only ever picked up two digital health startups.

Its purchase of Tueo Health after a two years-long digital health acquisition hiatus hints that the tech giant’s flexing its M&A muscles to ramp up its health play — and affirms our prediction that Apple would make a digital health acquisition this year.

Here’s what it means: Tueo Health joins a small rank of health data companies that Apple’s purchased.

Tueo Health offers Apple new capabilities in the lucrative asthma tracking market. Tueo Health — which has remained largely mum since it roped in just over $1 million in seed funding in 2017 — was developing tech that links an under-the-mattress sensor system for children with asthma to a mobile app that alerts parents of any breathing-related issues that arise at night. Apple was likely eyeing the digital asthma management company because its product had a good chance of taking off: The global intelligent asthma monitoring market is expected to hit $655 million by 2025 — a huge leap from its $20 million valuation in 2017, according to Allied Market Research.
Apple scooped up device maker Beddit in May 2017 in a clear move into sleep monitoring. Beddit developed a device that keeps tabs of users’ movement while they’re asleep. Apple likely tapped sleep tracking a growth pillar given that 45% of US adults in 2017 "could imagine" using a sleep tracker.
And Apple acquired health data startup Gliimpse in August 2016. Gliimpse — which targets patients with chronic conditions — offers a consumer-facing platform to combine a user’s personal health data from labs, hospitals, and pharmacies into one shareable report. Apple bought Gliimpse to help turn the iPhone into a repository for consumers’ medical records, helping Apple shoulderinto the health records market, per CNBC.

The bigger picture: Apple’s latest acquisition supports its efforts to build out its health-tracking capabilities to entice healthcare partners.

Tueo Health’s tech could boost Apple’s reported nighttime health tracking system. Tueo Health’s under-the-mattress sensors sound uncannily similar to the in-bed health tracking system that Apple outlined in a recent patent. And asthma was something the tech giant pinned as a condition the health tracking system could help manage. Its purchase of Tueo Health — and its access to the tech that makes its asthma tracking system tick — could accelerate the development of a health tracking system, and might reveal that Apple’s pegging asthma management as an area to hone its efforts.
And Apple could use the acquisition to forge new ties with health organizations that want access to valuable sleep data. If Apple can integrate Tueo Health’s solution into its smartphone-based personal medical records hub Health Records, pediatric-focused firms might want to join the horde of hospitals that’ve been flocking to implement it. The tech could provide a fuller picture of how patients are faring at night, which could steer doctors toward the most effective treatment options. This could be a balm to hospitals that are likely racing to get a handle on asthma, which costs the US $56 billion annually: Over 8% of children — or 6 million total — in the US suffer from asthma, and that number will likely climb, per the AAFA.

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