Fitbit Expands Its Health Care Reach With Twine Health Buy

Fitbit, the maker of wearable devices, announced Tuesday (Feb. 13) that it is acquiring Twine Health, the health coaching platform that aims to help people achieve better health outcomes. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

In a press release, Fitbit said thanks to a HIPAA-compliant connected health platform, Twine Health provides a user-friendly experience to help people better manage chronic conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension. The company’s platform also helps people reach lifestyle goals in the areas of weight loss and smoking cessation. Fitbit noted that Twine Health brings a “scalable” approach to health coaching, enabling one coach to work with a large number of patients.

“Twine Health has delivered powerful results for patients managing conditions like diabetes and hypertension – two key focus areas for Fitbit, which together affect approximately 105 million people in the U.S. alone,” said James Park, co-founder and CEO of Fitbit, in prepared remarks. “When combined with our decade-plus of experience empowering millions of consumers to take control of their health and wellness, we believe we can help build stronger connections between people and their care teams by removing some of the most difficult barriers to behavior change. Together, we can help health care providers better support patients beyond the walls of the clinical environment, which can lead to better health outcomes and ultimately, lower medical costs.”

Fitbit noted that the acquisition of Twine Health pushes the company further into the health care market. Long-term, the company expects to extend the Twine platform to reach more than 25 million users, as well as expand the number of conditions for which it provides support.

“We built Twine Health with the goal of putting people back at the center of their care, helping them take ownership of their health actions and outcomes with the continuous support of both clinicians and loved ones,” said Dr. John Moore, Twine Health co-founder and CEO. “Technology has a profound opportunity to facilitate this shift in behavior and give people the coaching they need to overcome the challenges that arise in daily life. That potential becomes even more compelling when combined with Fitbit, whose brand and ability to engage and motivate a diverse range of consumers is incredibly powerful. Together, we can build a complete experience to optimize health at scale, across the full spectrum from prevention to disease management.”