Apple Hires Top Talent in the area of Personalized Medicine

Stephen Friend, President of Sage Bionetworks will be joining Apple. Sage has worked very closely with Apple in the past in the development and use of ResearchKit framework.

Sage has tackled head-on some of the most vexing issues around data-sharing, including consent and the complicated dynamics around collaboration

Prior to his role at Sage Bionetworks, Stephen worked at Merck and Rosetta Inpharmatics. He has a lot of experience in navigating complex regulatory landscape when it comes to the medical data privacy and associated technologies.

Since its introduction of Researchkit in March 2015, Apple has been continuously trying to evolve the framework and associated applications. New developments in Researchkit were introduced at the 2016 WWDC conference including showcasing the app Autism and Beyond made by Duke Medicine. This researchkit app helps to identify and understand risks for child development.

Apple has steadily been hiring talent in this area. Just last month, it posted a job advertisement looking for a high level lawyer (Privacy counsel) who specializes in health privacy regulations.

Apple’s focus in the healthcare vertical will probably expand more as new innovations are made around its Watch 2.0 device. More importantly, this focus on researchkit and carekit has already shown remarkable achievements by making a difference in patient’s lifestyle and their day to day lives.

SK( Managing Editor )

Obsessed with tech since the early arrival of A/UX on Apple, Sudz (SK) is responsible for the editorial direction of AppleToolBox. He is based out of Los Angeles, CA.

Sudz specializes in covering all things macOS, having reviewed dozens of OS X and macOS developments over the years.

In a former life, Sudz worked helping Fortune 100 companies with their technology and business transformation aspirations.