- One of Apple’s top health developers has left the business to Oura
- Ricky Bloomfield joins the Smart Ring Company as his Chief Medical Officer
- Oura says it has ambitious goals for 2025 and an exciting next chapter ahead
One of Apple’s top health developers has left the company to join Oura, producer of some of the best smart rings for health and fitness tracking, in what could be a seismic shift in the industry and a signage for the future of health wearables.
Oura has just announced that Apple’s Ricky Bloomfield, MD, will join the company as its head of medical officer.
The company says that Dr. Bloomfield “will set the vision of Oura’s global health programs and partnerships, shaping its roadmap when complying with ever-changing health regulations enables cross-functional collaboration across the organization to drive the direction of new hardware and software functions to scale its health ambitions and guide the company’s expansion in health solutions.”
Dr. Bloomfield was previously the clinical and health information for Apple Health, whose term in his role included the launch of Apple’s health registers for iPhone and iPad.
Oura Chief Commercial Officer Dorothy Kilroy said the company was “excited” at Dr. Bloomfield’s employment, but what exactly does it say about the future of health and fitness technology?
Is the smart ring the future?
The best smartwatches have long been the founding pill for health and fitness tracking with sensors for monitoring heartbeat, exercise and even sleep.
But alternatives like Oura Ring 4 offer a more discreet and non -intrusive package that you are much less likely to notice. Smart rings do not get in the way of everyday life as much as a smartwatch can, and they also have other benefits.
Instead of relentless messages and excessive encouragement that tell you to get up, smartly measures little quietly your health in the background, giving you action data and trends at a time that suits you.
At Dr. Bloomfield would leave the world’s largest tech company, and in any case, a groundbreaking industry leader in health and fitness -wearables in favor of a smaller company that focuses on smart rings could talk about the future of health tracking.
Apple was once rumored to develop its own smart ring, but last we heard, the project had been shrinking. Dr. Bloomfield’s departure could be the last Death tight for Apple Ring that we had hoped, or it could signal that his ambition offsets a decision that Apple has already made to ditch the idea.
“We have ambitious goals this year, and his expertise will help us refine our vision and face the challenges that exist when they break into established industries as healthcare,” Kilroy said, continuing to say Dr. Bloomfield’s experience in data interoperability and standardization “Will set the stage for Oura’s next chapter.”
Hinter Oura to future updates and new models that can work closer with other smart tech, wearables, your healthcare providers or even AI?
The only time will show, but Dr. Bloomfied is a great addition to the company’s list that wants rivals like Samsung who look sideways.
While still a growing technology, smart rings are a serious threat to Smartwatch status quo. This week, Circular announced that its new ring 2 would contain both blood pressure and blood glucose monitoring, and it will be available as over-the-air updates in 2025 and 2026 respectively.
