Apple has added another prominent expert in the medial devices field to its internal team thought to have been tasked with the creation of an Apple-branded wearable device that the press refers to as the iWatch.
Divya Nag, “a rising star in the medical device community,”, has joined Apple’s in-house medical technology team, according to sources with knowledge of the hire who spoke to one Apple blog on the condition of anonymity because Apple is not fond of leaks…
9to5Mac spotlights the hiring of Divya Nag, a woman Forbes put on its annual 30 Under 30 list who has an established career in the science and healthcare fields.
She is a co-founder of the drug-testing startup Stem Cell Theranostics and the Stanford-based StartX, an accelerator for medical technology-minded startups.
An interesting excerpt from her LinkedIn profile could provide an insight into how she might contribute to Apple’s wearable device development:
Through StartX Med, Divya has operationally and strategically helped over 35 medical technology companies create product roadmaps, gain FDA approval, launch pilots with big provider networks like Stanford Hospital and MD Anderson, fundraise (over $100 Million in aggregate), and secure partnerships with top 10 pharmaceutical companies like Merck, Genentech and Johnson & Johnson.
Her experience with FDA approvals could be a fit for Apple.
Apple is said to have met with the United States Food and Drug Administration to discuss unspecified medical applications because any health related device must receive an FDA approval prior to being sold in the United States.
She also details her experience on her personal website.
As you know, the rumored iWatch is said to sport a host of biometric sensors to monitor a user’s health and fitness related data like heart rates, blood chemistry, hydration and respiratory rates and more.
The iWatch is believed to tap a new application in iOS 8 called Healthbook that should collate all health and fitness related data in a centralized database, possibly serving as an entry point for third-party iPhone apps that now keep user data private.
Over the past few months, Apple has added a bunch of high-profile talent to its hardware and software iWatch team – from sleep researchers to medical device experts to biosensing engineers, with some of the more prominent names including Massimo Corporations’ former chief medical office Michael O’Reilly and former Cercacor CTO Marcelo Malini Lamego.