Alongside the debut of Oura's smaller Ring 5, the wearables company on Thursday unveiled its plans to help users integrate health records and translate their ring's findings into medical care.
Oura has been building on its healthcare business for a little more than a year, hiring a chief medical officer and partnering with healthcare companies like Maven Clinic and most recently Resmed. Thursday's announcements build on that work by incorporating AI-powered doctor's visits through a partnership with Counsel Health and the ability to input health records.
The push further into healthcare comes at a critical time for the company: Valued at $11 billion, Oura said on May 21 that it had confidentially filed to go public.
"What we imagine here is a new way of thinking about health and being not only proactive, but reducing that barrier for members for everyday care," Maziar Brumand, Oura's VP of Product, told Endpoints News.
For a subscription fee (the price of which has not yet been determined), Oura users can go through the Oura app to Counsel Health, a startup that offers medical AI services as well as visits with doctors. That way, an Oura user picking up on a change to their blood pressure (one of two new measurements Oura is launching Thursday) could speak directly with a physician and get care. It's one of the first times a wearables company has integrated care directly into its platform.
"There is just this huge consumer desire to tie these metrics to real clinical things," Counsel medical chief Rishi Khakhkhar said. "I think it was inevitable that these two worlds would eventually merge," he added.
Khakhkhar said that there are three reasons why it's now possible for wearables to link with clinical care. For one, the hardware is getting better and closer to the biometrics clinicians use in their medical practices. AI is also making it easier to integrate wearable data directly into Counsel's electronic medical record and analyze the volume of data wearables can amass between visits. And there's more comfort with asynchronous care that can be done via messages rather than a video call.
The partnership with Oura is also one of the first public partnerships for GV- and Andreessen Horowitz-backed Counsel, which works in partnership with other healthcare organizations like health plans and health systems to supply medical AI and virtual care via physicians.
As part of the Ring 5 launch, which has a starting price of $399, Oura also set up a way for users to input their medical records. Done in collaboration with healthcare data company Flexpa and drawing on the TEFCA framework that allows individuals access to their health information, Oura users can have their medical records pulled for them, rather than manually inputting the information themselves.
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Alongside the debut of Oura's smaller Ring 5, the wearables company on Thursday unveiled its plans to help users integrate health records and translate their ring's findings into medical care.
Oura has been building on its healthcare business for a little more than a year, hiring a chief medical officer and partnering with healthcare companies like Maven Clinic and most recently Resmed. Thursday's announcements build on that work by incorporating AI-powered doctor's visits through a partnership with Counsel Health and the ability to input health records.
The push further into healthcare comes at a critical time for the company: Valued at $11 billion, Oura said on May 21 that it had confidentially filed to go public.
"What we imagine here is a new way of thinking about health and being not only proactive, but reducing that barrier for members for everyday care," Maziar Brumand, Oura's VP of Product, told Endpoints News.
For a subscription fee (the price of which has not yet been determined), Oura users can go through the Oura app to Counsel Health, a startup that offers medical AI services as well as visits with doctors. That way, an Oura user picking up on a change to their blood pressure (one of two new measurements Oura is launching Thursday) could speak directly with a physician and get care. It's one of the first times a wearables company has integrated care directly into its platform.
"There is just this huge consumer desire to tie these metrics to real clinical things," Counsel medical chief Rishi Khakhkhar said. "I think it was inevitable that these two worlds would eventually merge," he added.
Khakhkhar said that there are three reasons why it's now possible for wearables to link with clinical care. For one, the hardware is getting better and closer to the biometrics clinicians use in their medical practices. AI is also making it easier to integrate wearable data directly into Counsel's electronic medical record and analyze the volume of data wearables can amass between visits. And there's more comfort with asynchronous care that can be done via messages rather than a video call.
The partnership with Oura is also one of the first public partnerships for GV- and Andreessen Horowitz-backed Counsel, which works in partnership with other healthcare organizations like health plans and health systems to supply medical AI and virtual care via physicians.
As part of the Ring 5 launch, which has a starting price of $399, Oura also set up a way for users to input their medical records. Done in collaboration with healthcare data company Flexpa and drawing on the TEFCA framework that allows individuals access to their health information, Oura users can have their medical records pulled for them, rather than manually inputting the information themselves.