Apple Adds Another Medical Device Expert
By Joel Lindsey
According to recent reports, Apple has hired Divya Nag, a high profile medical device expert, to its ever-growing team of health-related researchers, developers, and industry strategists.
Nag is the co-founder of Stem Cell Theranostics, a drug-testing company. She also founded StartX, which helps medical technology startups get on their feet. Additionally, she was recently named one of Forbes’ “30 Under 30.”
Reports of Nag’s hire first surfaced in an article published by the Apple news aggregator 9 to 5 Mac. Mark Gurman, the author of the article, speculated that Nag would serve primarily as an industry strategist rather than a researcher or product developer.
“On the surface, in comparison to Apple’s other recent medical industry hires, Nag’s expertise does not seem immediately applicable to future Apple hardware or software,” Gurman wrote. “[But] with experience in managing product launches, gaining FDA approval, and partnering up with existing healthcare behemoths, Nag could be the key to Apple being able to launch devices such as the iWatch and Healthbook software that could track the likes of blood sugar, pulse, sleep patterns, and blood pressure.”
Gurman also indicated that Apple has been looking for engineers experienced in designing and executing tests for health-related devices and suggested that Nag could help the company test its new products and applications.
Apple’s hiring of Nag is the company’s latest personnel acquisition in what has become a headline-generating pattern throughout 2014, as the company continues expanding its body of health-related experts. Earlier this year, for example, Med Device Online ran an article highlighting key additions to Apple’s newly-assembled biosensor team.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has described the field of wearable devices as “ripe for exploration,” and the company has indicated that it intends to move increasingly into the twin fields of health-related devices and software applications.
These announcements, along with the company’s hiring of high profile medical device experts like Nag, continue to generate speculations about what new health-related technologies the company may be developing. In particular, the biosensor-laden iWatch device and the Healthbook app have been the focus of much of this attention.