As part of its mobile health drive, Apple has rehired Evan Doll, co-founder of “social magazine” company Flipboard. Doll will serve as Apple’s new director of health software engineering.
Photo: LinkedIn
Beyond his job title, it’s not known what exactly Doll will be doing at Apple, although the existence of a health software engineering position underlines once again that this is an area Apple is interested in.
The Apple Watch, which CEO Tim Cook recently touted as a “device for a healthy life,” is the company’s most obvious foray into the health and fitness arena. From everyday fitness tracking to ambitious medical studies powered by Apple’s ResearchKit framework, the sensor-laden wearable is proving to be a powerful and flexible tool for gathering health-related data.
Apple has expanded its staffing in this area recently, notably adding Sage Bionetworks founder Stephen Friend and former Nest Labs technology chief Yoky Matsuoka.
This week it was reported that Apple is developing a “killer” new health device (not the most appropriate descriptor, perhaps!) that is scheduled to make its debut in 2017. The device will reportedly monitor heart rate and blood sugar levels, and will somehow be incorporated into the 2017 iPhone refresh.
This will be Doll’s second stint at Apple. He helped develop the iOS operating system for iPhone between 2003 and 2009, before leaving to create Flipboard with Mike McCue. The news-aggregation app launched for iPad in mid-2010, later made its way to iPhone, and remains a top competitor of the Apple News app. Doll left the company last year.
Source: Bloomberg
