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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants everyone to wear a smartwatch, fitness tracker, or other piece of wearable health tech as part of his "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) agenda.
"My vision is every American is wearing a wearable within four years," he told a House subcommittee today. "It's a way of people taking control over their own health. They can take responsibility. They can see...what food is doing to their glucose levels, their heart rates, and a number of other metrics as they eat it."
It's the same message Kennedy put out a month ago when he met with several health tech CEOs, including the heads of Whoop, Function Health, knownwell, Talkiatry, Season Health, Turquoise Health, and Hippocratic AI, according to STAT reporter Mario Aguilar.
These companies stand to benefit from a government-backed push for Americans to buy their products, and Kennedy plans to soon kick off "one of the biggest advertising campaigns in HHS history to encourage Americans to use wearables," he told House lawmakers today.
Wearables are growing rapidly. These days, they do far more than track steps; they monitor vitals, sleep, and nutrition. Many wearables can also detect serious conditions like atrial fibrillation (AFib). Last fall, the Federal Drug Administration approved Apple's addition of sleep apnea monitoring to the Apple Watch. Earlier this year, the company launched the Apple Health Study, "to further understand how technology—including iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods—can play a role in advancing and improving physical health, mental health, and overall wellbeing."
Wearables could outsource some of the burden of monitoring the public's health to private companies and individuals rather than through government programs. However, that comes with personal data-collection risks, depending on how HHS and Kennedy plan to use or monitor a wearables-focused program. (CBS News reports that Kennedy plans to use data from personal fitness trackers and smartwatches to study autism.)
Kennedy, meanwhile, is also planning major job cuts, promising to "save taxpayers an estimated $1.8 billion per year through a reduction in workforce," according to his prepared testimony. "Our reductions have focused on matching HHS staffing levels to the size of HHS prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw an approximate 15% increase in the number of employees," he says.
For more, check out Wearables Aren't Going to 'Make America Healthy Again' and The Ultrahuman Ring Air Shamed Me Into Ditching Unhealthy Habits, from our sibling sites, Lifehacker and CNET.