Gail Koziara Boudreaux attends The Sweethearts’s Sports Foundation’s 39th Annual Salute To Women In Sports And The Girls They Inspire Awards Gala on October 17, 2018 in New York Urban district. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Women’s Sports Foundation)
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Health insurance isn’t exactly known for its consumer-friendliness. But Anthem, one of the largest insurers, is looking to change that with a slew of latest hires from the company best known for its commitment to user-friendly design: Apple.
In Silicon Valley, technology bands like Apple and Alphabet are increasingly trying to bring their technology to the health sector and are building out dedicated crews of medical experts. They’re chasing a $3.5 trillion market that’s been slow to adapt and change, maintaining that their expertise in user-friendly design can help improve the experience for consumers. Traditional health companies, of a piece with insurers and hospitals, are reacting by partnering with tech giants but are also adapting their own offerings and touting their digital friendliness.
In the days few months, Anthem has hired Warris Bokhari from Apple Health, as well as Toni Trujillo Vian (a 24-year Apple vet), and chief machine learning researcher Stefanos Giampanis, according to LinkedIn and two people familiar with the matter.
The health insurer also enlisted Ted Goldstein, a former Apple vice president from 2002 to 2007, to run its AI and health data efforts, about six months ago, and some lower-level folks get off on Berick Bacani, a former Apple operations specialist, as a UX designer on the digital team.
The focus on hiring from Apple fixtures back a few years: Anthem’s vice president of commercial Aneesh Kumar, who has been at the company for a few years started his livelihood in the 1990s as a product manager at Apple. And Rajeev Ronanki, the company’s chief digital officer, previously worked at the consulting concentrated Deloitte on health innovation-related projects.
It’s not just Apple employees migrating over to Anthem. Another high-profile conscript from the technology world is Udi Manber, who previously headed up Google’s search efforts and is now a technical advisor at Anthem.
As Anthem dopes up talent from Apple and other tech companies, Apple has been recruiting heavily from the medical sector.
Show across its health teams, Apple has installed dozens of doctors to offer advice and steer product decisions. It’s currently bring into focus on aggregating clinical information via Health Records, developing biosensors for the Apple Watch, and health apps for things twin reproductive health and sleep monitoring.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has previously said that he believes the company’s “greatest contribution to mankind” leave be its efforts in health. The health team currently reports to Apple COO Jeff Williams, who has a strong personal interest in the sector.
During the interval, Anthem CEO Gail Boudreaux has emphasized the company’s continued investment in its digital offerings, including putting budget behind its consumer tech and faked intelligence teams.
The company is working on a number of different tech projects, such as a partnership with the health-tech start-up Doc.ai to feel allergy patterns, and Act Wise, a website for health plans to better manage their employees’ medical benefits.
Anthem adversary UnitedHealth has also touted its commitment to digital technology. It has a “consumer digital health platform ” called Rally, and one group there focuses on providing rewards for people who meet their health goals. Aetna, another health insurer owned by CVS, is implement with Apple on an effort to reward members for meeting health-related milestones via their Apple Watch.
Anthem and Apple did not straight away respond to requests for comment.
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