Fitbit, today announced it has acquired Twine Health, a HIPAA-compliant health coaching platform that delivers a user-friendly experience to help people manage chronic conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension, and to support lifestyle interventions, such as weight loss and smoking cessation.
Twine Health’s proven coaching platform is a strong foundation upon which Fitbit plans to expand its offerings to self-insured employers, health plans and health systems. Through the acquisition, Fitbit also hopes to build stronger connections between consumers and their care teams by removing some of the most difficult barriers to behavior change.
The combination of Twine Health and Fitbit offerings will create new opportunities for healthcare providers support patients beyond the walls of the clinical environment, which can lead to better health outcomes and ultimately, lower medical costs. As part of the acquisition, the Twine Health team will join Fitbit as part of its Health Solutions group. Dr. Moore will serve as Fitbit’s Medical Director.
Founded in 2013 by Dr. John Moore, Frank Moss (Executive Chairman), and Scott Gilroy, Twine Health developed its approach based on years of behavior change and clinical research done at the MIT Media Lab. It uses a powerful combination of artificial intelligence-driven insights and human interaction to generate positive health outcomes, automating parts of the coaching process and freeing up time for more personalized care.
Randomized controlled trials conducted by world-renowned facilities including Massachusetts General Hospital and the Joslin Diabetes Center found that the foundational behavior change principles behind Twine Health’s technology helped drive statistically significant improvements in both diabetes and hypertension management.
For example, patients at the Joslin Diabetes Center saw an average 3.2 drop in HbA1c after 3 months, and patients in Massachusetts General Hospital’s hypertension intervention saw an average 26mmHg drop in blood pressure after 3 months.
“Twine Health has delivered powerful results for patients managing conditions like diabetes and hypertension – two key focus areas for Fitbit, which together affect approximately 105 million people in the U.S. alone. When combined with our decade-plus of experience empowering millions of consumers to take control of their health and wellness, we believe we can help build stronger connections between people and their care teams by removing some of the most difficult barriers to behavior change,” said James Park, co-founder and CEO of Fitbit. In a statement “Together, we can help healthcare providers better support patients beyond the walls of the clinical environment, which can lead to better health outcomes and ultimately, lower medical costs.”
Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.
