Silicon Valley has seen an influx of world-renowned cardiologists lately—a phenomenon that’s likely the result of increased attention to healthcare in the tech industry—CNBC reported this week.
Alphabet’s life sciences company Verily kicked off the trend nearly three years ago by hiring cardiologist Jessica Mega as their chief medical officer, and this summer Apple and Amazon followed, coaxing cardiologists Alexis Beatty and Maulik Majmudar, respectively, to join their teams.
It might be a coincidence, CNBC reported, since “cardiologists tend to be well-educated and hard-working, and big tech companies have a track record of recruiting such people.” But a more likely explanation is that major players in the technology industry are jumping on the healthcare bandwagon, and heart health was a natural starting point.
Apple CEO Jeff Williams explained the transition as an organic one his company didn’t necessarily see coming.
“We didn’t wake up one day and say, ‘Well, we’ve done the phone, we’ve done the iPad, why don’t we knock out health next?'" he told CNBC. “Quite honestly, we’ve been really surprised with the deluge of letters and emails we’ve gotten where just the simple heart rate monitor was able to have such an impact on people’s lives. And we’ve been really inspired and we want to do even more.”
The EKG function available in Apple’s latest-series watch was essentially born from that impact, he said. And other companies are taking note—Google Fit worked closely with the American Heart Association for a design revamp, and Amazon has a research and development team doing their own work.
“Big Silicon Valley companies have often competed for talent with specialized skills, like expertise in artificial intelligence or trendy new programming languages,” CNBC wrote. “Now, they’re competing for doctors.”
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After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.