Apple’s push into healthcare may have included buying a popular startup that runs on-site medical clinics for companies.
The consumer technology giant spent several months discussing whether to buy Crossover Health, but eventually no deal was reached, according to a CNBC report published Monday that cites unnamed sources.
The report didn’t say why the deal fell through, but said it was intended to help the company possibly expand into primary care. Apple also approached the nationwide primary care group One Medical for some sort of deal, according to CNBC, but it’s unclear what the deal was intended to be.
Crossover Health operates four in-person clinics in Silicon Valley and one clinic in New York City, according to its website. The startup also maintains on-site health centers for companies like Facebook (FB) and Apple (AAPL) that offer a variety of services like primary and urgent care and physical therapy.
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A Coins2Day story published in 2015 about Silicon Valley health initiatives described Apple’s Crossover center “as more of an Apple Store than a doctor’s office,” regarding the center’s decor and environment.
Apple CEO Tim Cook recently told Coins2Day that Apple is “extremely interested” in healthcare sees it as a “business opportunity.”
“If you look at it, medical health activity is the largest or second-largest component of the economy, depending on which country in the world you’re dealing with,” Cook said.
Apple’s medical tool for developers and another Apple health-initiative, Research Kit, was recently used to help gather data for a study on asthma and health. One of the Mount Sinai researchers who worked on the study said that ResearchKit was “particularly suitable for studies of short duration that require rapid enrollment across diverse geographical locations, frequent data collection, and real-time feedback to participants.”