Although Apple has transformed the personal healthcare market with the Apple Watch and its suite of services inside of the Health app, it appears the company originally had different ambitions.
According to a new report, Apple spent years testing primary care clinics to offer the service to customers but eventually decided to put its effort into Apple Watch. According to Wall Street Journal, Apple has, since 2016, been working on offering primary health care under the Apple brand, and actually took over a number of health clinics in Cupertino to test its theories and technologies before dropping the project.
Indeed, in what’s now called Project Casper, Apple has been working on a number of health-related tools like the blood oximeter on the Apple Watch Series 6, and reportedly planned for deeper integrations.
Although Apple’s plans to expand further into healthcare haven’t been scrapped entirely, it now appears that plans for Apple-owned clinics have been stalled, because of a lack of clear results and to increase the focus on Apple Watch. Indeed, the report states that some members of the team objected to the methodology being used during the trials, and several high-profile hires reportedly quit the project.
When asked about the news, a spokesperson for Apple said that an example of a manager leaving was “investigated thoroughly and the allegations could not be substantiated” and added that “Many of the assertions in this report are based on incomplete, outdated and inaccurate information.”
The report also suggests that Apple has been testing a new app called HealthHabit, which is designed to set health challenges and connect users to coaches when needed. However, staff have reportedly struggled to engage with the concept and it appears that this concept has been scrapped or stalled.
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