Large technology companies in Silicon Valley often compete for talented hires with specialized skills in artificial intelligence or programming. Now, those companies are also competing for a new kind of talent: cardiologists.
Apple, Amazon and Alphabet — Google's parent company — have begun recruiting physicians and medical professionals to their teams as they move further into the healthcare space. Apple hired cardiologist Alexis Beatty, MD, in July as part of its health team; Amazon hired Maulik Majmudar, MD, also a cardiologist, one month later. Alphabet's life sciences company Verily hired cardiologist Jessica Mega, MD, as CMO three years ago.
While Drs. Beatty, Majmudar and Mega's backgrounds in cardiology may be a coincidence, their specialized knowledge of medicine, nutrition and exercise science bodes well for tech companies like Amazon, Apple and Alphabet that are more focused on creating wellness and fitness applications and products that track individuals' heart health. For example, Alphabet created its Google Fit device; Apple has a fitness tracker available in its Apple Watch, which also has an electrocardiogram monitor, among other health features; and Amazon has begun looking into health and wellness applications for its Alexa voice assistant.
Cardiology is also one of the most well-studied fields in medicine, meaning there is a plethora of evidence to understand cardiac conditions like heart disease, which is the No. 1 killer in the world, and strokes, which are also a leading cause of death. The extensive research available in the field is attractive to tech companies, which tend to base their development decisions on available data, the report states.
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