Apple launches private clinics for its employees

March 4, 2018 TECH

Apple is preparing to launch a group of health clinics called AC Wellness for its employees and their families this spring, according to several sources familiar with the company’s plans. The company quietly posted a website, acwellness.com, with more details about its initiative and a career page that lists jobs that include a primary care physician, personal trainer and care navigator, as well as a phlebotomist to perform laboratory analyzes.

This new primary care group, a group of clinical staff that is administered independently from Apple, but is dedicated to Apple employees in Santa Clara County, at least initially. A list of jobs posted on Indeed.com details “multiple and impressive state-of-the-art medical centers” in Santa Clara, a few miles north of its Cupertino headquarters. One of the centers is located on the new Apple Park campus, according to another list of jobs.

Breaking: Apple is launching medical clinics to deliver the 'world's best health care experience' to its employees

via @CNBC: https://t.co/FDxRxxfs0h #digitalhealth #healthit #healthcare #healthux #apple #ACWellness $AAPL pic.twitter.com/3zIGjk28eq

— Focus21 Inc. (@Focus21Inc) February 27, 2018

And a search on LinkedIn reveals that former employees of Stanford Health Care have joined AC Wellness for at least five months, although Apple is not mentioned in the profiles of people. However, several of the job listings on Apple’s site through Tuesday describe AC Wellness as a “subsidiary of Apple, Inc.” A medical group can hire non-medical administrators through a subsidiary.

The news comes when Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JP Morgan announced a joint effort to improve the healthcare of their employees. And, to provide better primary care is key to the success of these companies, since it is much cheaper to prevent the disease than to treat people who are already sick. Health problems result in 69 million workers reporting lost days each year, which reduces economic output by $ 260 billion per year, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. UU

In addition to the typical roles involved in a primary care clinic, Apple also seeks to hire “designers” who will help implement a program focused on disease prevention and the promotion of healthy behavior. He is looking for a health designer of the population and a leader in the design of the clinical program, as the listings show. [wp_ad_camp_3]

These designers will work with operations and technology teams.

Some sources comment that the company will take advantage of its medical clinics as a way to test its growing range of health services and products, which is beginning to be extended to consumers in general. He is currently working with Stanford to study if his Apple Watch can detect irregularities with heart rate, an effort that would benefit a large population of healthy and sick patients. Apple CEO Tim Cook recently told shareholders he could make a “significant contribution” to medical care.

Arrayit business develop team submits microarray-based testing proposal to $910 billion consumer goods and electronic equipment giant Apple Nasdaq:AAPL as Apple employee AC Wellness medical clinic sets to open this spring in Santa Clara California USA https://t.co/azrl7yBDVI pic.twitter.com/NQOgLyVzsI

— Arrayit Corporation (@arrayit) February 27, 2018