Mobile tech company Jawbone is looking to pivot into the healthcare market, according to a recent report from Recode.
The San Francisco-based company, which produced bluetooth earpieces and speakers, announced in July it was liquidating its assets. Now, Jawbone is looking to take a small portion of its staff – only approximately 110, compared to its previous 600 – as it transitions into Jawbone Health, according to the report.
The newly formed Jawbone Health will offer a subscription system to help users monitor their health and catch problems early on, according to Recode. The company will offer a wearable device to paying subscribers, but said that it will be “device and sensor agnostic.”
Jawbone Health said that it will partner with other “clinical-grade” device makers for its system, which will be able to accept data from devices including Apple‘s (NSDQ:AAPL) iPhone and Watch, according to the report.
“Two-thirds of all deaths today are lifestyle-disease related, which means it’s just bad living, right?. But the reality is, if you catch that stuff early and you change your behavior or whatnot, you can push out half of those deaths and save 70% of the cost. The problem is, we have no information,” CEO Hosain Rahman told Recode. “We don’t know where we stand. What’s going on with us, right? We have half a million minutes a year in our lives. If you’re good, you spend 15 minutes a year with a doctor, maybe four times a year. That’s a very small percentage of the population. So the idea is to give people tools.”
Rahman suggested that the new service would be similar to a “check engine light for humans,” according to the report.
Jawbone Health has not yet stated what metrics it will look to monitor for customers, but did say that the company will work with a product called Health Cloud to protect user data and securely share it with physicians, according to Recode.
