Fitbit is set to dive further into the healthcare market with its Twine Health acquisition, a newly announced company purchase that it unveiled on its blog earlier today. Fitbit, a company which is primarily well-known for its wearable fitness trackers that are sold to consumers, will be branching out into new avenues through acquiring Twine Health and will be able to “expand on” its offerings for health plans and health systems. This means that the acquisition isn’t directly user-facing, though it will end up benefiting users in one way or another as Fitbit plans to incorporate Twine Health’s expertise in health coaching with its own fitness-related platform.
With Twine Health’s coaching platform in place, Fitbit will be able to offer its health systems and health plan customers a scalable platform to work with. It will also allow for a single health coach to monitor and manage multiple patients with little effort. This makes it easier for the health coach as well as the patients, as coaches will get to help a larger number of people and the patients will still get a dedicated coach to help them reach their health and fitness goals.
Fitbit also states that the acquisition should help to not only improve the outcomes for patients who utilize a health coach for their healthcare needs, but also help bring the cost of healthcare down. Decreasing healthcare costs in any shape or form is good for those who need to utilize healthcare and Fitbit seems keen on making this a reality, as it’s not just something that it wants to happen. Fitbit also has a strong belief that it can help foster a stronger relationship between the teams of healthcare professionals and the patients who they work with. Fitbit doesn’t discuss any financial terms of the acquisition, nor does it mention when the acquisition will actually be finalized. While this purchase does allow Fitbit to expand into the healthcare field more than it already has, it also presents Fitbit with an opportunity to expand on subscription-based services revenues as well, though it doesn’t mention this specifically in more detail, only noting that it would open up more revenue possibilities.