Apple’s health care ambitions are a lot bigger than we realized

Starting in 2016, Apple began working on a plan for its own set of health care clinics with Apple-employed doctors. The project, code-named Casper, was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

As part of its work on Casper, Apple reportedly took over clinics that catered to its employees and did hire some clinicians, along with technical staff. The goal of the project was to enable patients and doctors to be in more regular, near-constant contact.

Work on the project, says the Journal, has “largely stalled,” with Apple returning its focus to selling hardware.

Health care is one of the areas overseen by Apple’s chief operating officer, Jeff Williams. He has reportedly urged his team to disrupt the current model, in which people visit their physicians only when something goes wrong. Casper was an attempt to do just that.

The plan was to link data from Apple devices to both in-person and virtual visits. Apple would offer ongoing health monitoring as well as primary care as part of a subscription-based program. The company hoped to franchise the model on a wide scale.

Casper is still running today, but Apple has not had much luck in moving it beyond the early stage owing to a variety of factors. The Journal reports some concerns about the accuracy of the data collected (which Apple disputes) and says participating employees haven’t been especially engaged with the program so far.

To date, Apple has focused more on the health aspects of Apple Watch, something analysts have been bullish about. Before the pandemic, Morgan Stanley estimated the company could become a leader in consumer health, with possible additional revenue reaching as high as $313 billion.