Fitbit Drives Better Health Outcomes with Twine Acquisition

While Fitbit has long been helping wearers to measure their steps and track heart rate, the tech may now go one step further in helping users live healthier lives. The biometric tracker company announced on Feb. 13 that it would acquire Twine Health, a coaching platform that aims to help people improve health outcomes and lower care costs for payers, providers and health systems.

"A HIPAA-compliant connected health platform, Twine Health delivers an engaging and user-friendly experience to help people manage chronic conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension, and aid in lifestyle interventions, such as weight loss and smoking cessation, by making it easy for care teams of providers, coaches, friends and family to collaborate on care plans," says a statement announcing the acquisition.

The platform offers a "scalable" approach, which allows one coach to work with a number of patients to reach their health goals.

“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. 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,” James Park, co-founder and CEO of Fitbit, said in the statement. “Together, we can help healthcare providers better support patients beyond the walls of the clinical environment, which can lead to better health outcomes and ultimately, lower medical costs.”