A top Apple health researcher has left the company. Dr. Andrew Trister joined the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, it emerged Friday.
Running Gates Foundation Digital Health Group
Dr. Trister joined Apple in April 2016, according to his LinkedIn page (which he has yet to update with his new role). He will become a Deputy Director of Digital Health Innovation at the Gates Foundation. His role involves running a new digital health group.
Dr. Trister told CNBC that his new employer was “looking to help both consumers and community health workers globally, as we see smartphones playing an increasingly important role.” However, he did not disclose whether or not he will continue the research into smartphone monitoring and dementia. Bill Gates has though expressed interest in providing funding for research into the disease.
Charlotte:
One of the thematic areas of research interest to the Foundation has been the application of low cost innovative tech solutions that can be sustainably ported to low and middle income countries (LMICs), including both patient diagnostics and interventions. Many of these responses to these grand challenges come from that emerging medicine-engineering interface, especially in diagnostics.
One should not be surprised if this hire presages a fresh round of requests for proposals (RFPs) for such tech innovations.