Apple's Hiring Spree of Biosensor Experts Continues As iWatch Team Grows

An anonymous reader writes "As the rumors surrounding Apple's mythical iWatch continue to swell, Apple has continued to hire folks with deep biomedical and sensor technology expertise. A previously unreported addition to Apple's growing cadre of medical device experts is Marcelo Malini Lamego, who began working at Apple this January. Before joining Apple this past January, Lamego spent 8 years as the CTO of Cercacor, a medical devices company with a focus on developing noninvasive monitoring technologies."

Not sure what they're doing

[oscrivellodds]

I can't see going after the market for fitness buffs because there just aren't enough of them who care about heart rates, etc. Everyone who goes to the gym isn't training for a triathlon.

I CAN see going after the chronically ill. That is a huge piece of the US/world population. If you could monitor things like blood sugar, heart rate/rhythm, blood pressure, blood oxygen/CO2 levels,etc., and detect anomalies and sound alarms this thing could be huge. I suppose all the fitness stuff would be a subset of this capability, so you'd get the fitness nuts and the ill with one device.

Knowing Apple, it will probably only work with iTunes, the worst POS software since Windows...

hiring now = little progress yet

[rapjr]

Doing medical sensing, making sure the data is accurate, especially in a mobile setting where the sensors are subject to movement, and understanding what the data means (mostly only astronauts have ever been subject to continuous medical sensing) are not easy. If they are just hiring experts now it will be a year or more before they have even a basic handle on the issues involved. If they want something FDA certified with data that can be easily digested by doctors it will take at least several years to bring a product to market. If they are just building another fitness device they probably already have it working. Possibly they'll try to position some medical-like sensing as non-medical so they don't have to get FDA certified and can avoid liability by claiming the device and apps are not intended for any medical/health purpose.

Yo dawg

[Hognoxious]

Why is the perception of Slashdot that if anyone has done something even vaguely in the same ballpark, no matter how removed it is, then clearly the newer lot are just copying.

Because they're imitating Apple's lawyers?

Privacy regulations

[failedlogic]

There are all kinds of biosensors available that don't connect to the Internet. An Apple device presumably will.

There is enough concern with the amount of information being collected with an iPhone. Consumers should be cautious about providing their personal health info with Apple. I would only hope whatever information is stored on Apple servers, it is regulated like other HIPAA info. At the least, if Apple needs to be HIPAA compliant and information is breached, big fines and other penalties will/should follow.