Podcast

At present, America has a sick care system where we wait until people are ill before we intervene.

But what if wearable technology could serve as a kind of check engine light, letting us know when our health data is off?

What if wearables could help us prevent disease and make better decisions for our health on a daily basis?

Harpreet Singh Rai is the CEO of Oura, a health technology company on a mission to help people improve their sleep, understand their bodies and transform their health. Harpreet’s team makes the Oura Ring, the most accurate sleep and activity tracker on the market. Harpreet spent 10 years in the finance space, serving as an Analyst with Morgan Stanley and Portfolio Manager at Eminence Capital before joining Oura in 2017.

On this episode of HLTH Matters, Harpreet joins hosts Dr. Gautam Gulati, Dr. Jordan Shlain and Patricia Bradley to explain what differentiates the Oura Ring from other wearables and discuss its potential to become a clinically validated medical device. Harpreet shares his vision to expand the adoption of Oura through corporate partnerships, describing what his team does to keep user data private. Listen in for Harpreet’s insight on how wearables predict illness (including COVID-19) and learn how the Oura Ring can help you make better daily decisions to improve your health.

Topics Covered

• What inspired Harpreet’s passion for technology and health and how he got involved with the team at Oura
• What differentiates the Oura Ring from other wearables
• The potential for the Oura Ring to become a clinically validated medical device
• How the Oura Ring predicts COVID-19 2 to 3 days before symptoms present
• Harpreet’s insight on increasing adoption of Oura through partnerships with corporate organizations and healthcare payers and providers
• What Oura does to ensure GDPR and HIPAA compliance and keep user data private
• The benefit of Oura’s suggest-and-confirm methodology (and how Harpreet’s team plans to expand the feature)
• Why Oura focuses on deviation vs. absolute numbers to inform behavior change
• Oura’s long-term vision to support health as a daily practice
• How Oura helped the NBA maintain the ‘bubble’ during the pandemic

Connect with Harpreet Singh Rai

Oura

Connect with Dr. Gautam Gulati, Dr. Jordan Shlain & Patricia Bradley

HLTH

Dr. Gulati on Twitter

Dr. Gulati on LinkedIn

Dr. Shlain on Twitter

Dr. Shlain on LinkedIn

Resources

Oura’s Research & Validation Blog

'Feasible Assessment of Recovery and Cardiovascular Health: Accuracy of Nocturnal HR and HRV Assessed Via Ring PPG in Comparison to Medical-Grade ECG’ in Physiological Measurement

‘The Promise of Sleep: A Multi-Sensor Approach for Accurate Sleep Stage Detection Using the Oura Ring’ in Sensors

‘Feasibility of Continuous Fever Monitoring Using Wearable Devices’ in Nature

‘Feasibility of Continuous Distal Body Temperature for Passive, Early Pregnancy Detection’ in medRxiv

‘Nocturnal Finger Skin Temperature in Menstrual Cycle Tracking: Ambulatory Pilot Study Using a Wearable Oura Ring’ in BMC Women’s Health

‘Ultradian Rhythms in Heartrate Variability and Distal Body Temperature Anticipate Onset of Luteinizing Hormone Surge’ in Scientific Reports

‘WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute Announces Capability to Predict COVID-19 Related Symptoms Up to Three Days in Advance’ in WVU Medicine News

‘The US Military’s Latest Wearables Can Detect Illness Two Days Before You Get Sick’ in Defense One

Fitbit Health Solutions

GDPR Compliance

HIPAA Compliance

Hippocratic Oath 2.0

‘The NBA Bubble Has Rolled Out Some Wild Technology to Help Keep Players, Coaches and Staff COVID-Free' in Business Insider

Introductory Quote

[34:12] “We call a lot of what we do in the app, we call it ‘look within.’ People are pulled to it. What changed? Why did my data change? What did I do yesterday? You actually ask yourself, and that’s where behavior change happens.”