Onduo, a digital health tool from Alphabet’s life science subsidiary Verily, announced it will be offering Fitbit devices and Fitbit Premium with its chronic disease management platform.

Employees who use the Onduo program through their employer will be able to receive a Fitbit Inspire 2 as well as access to Fitbit Premium, which offers more health insight data, guided workouts and health and nutrition information.

Fitbit was acquired by Google, also part of Alphabet, in January. 

“As we continue to expand Fitbit’s work with companies like Onduo, there is tremendous opportunity to help people make even bigger improvements in their health and wellbeing and support condition management,” Amy McDonough, managing director and GM of Fitbit Health Solutions at Google, said in a statement.

“For more than 14 years, research has shown and we’ve seen firsthand how our tools can help people make lasting behavior changes, provide motivation to achieve goals and help improve outcomes in conditions like diabetes, prediabetes and hypertension. With Onduo, we hope to bring these benefits to even more users to improve their health and wellness.”

WHY IT MATTERS

Six in ten Americans live with at least one chronic illness, like heart disease, cancer or diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Onduo and Fitbit are pitching their partnership as a way for users to get a more comprehensive view of their health, including activity, sleep and stress metrics. 

“With a mission to help people get healthier, Fitbit helps users manage their holistic health and wellness, making them a perfect complement to our whole-person health promise,” Dr. Vindell Washington, CEO of Onduo, said in a statement.

“Together with Fitbit, we’ll be able to better support condition-specific management and our members' overall health and wellness by providing new tools and actionable guidance to support their health journeys. For example, in using Fitbit Onduo members will receive Fitbit insights like how increased activity can decrease resting heart rate – and they will be able to proactively engage in the management of their activity, sleep and nutrition.”

THE LARGER TREND

Onduo expanded its platform beyond Type 2 diabetes early this year, now including support for hypertension, pre-diabetes, weight loss and mental health. 

In March, integrated healthcare organization Highmark Health partnered with the chronic care platform alongside Verily to build and clinically validate digital health tools focused on patient engagement.

Last week, Insider reported that Verily is looking to detach itself from Google’s technology infrastructure in a possible move to separate itself from its parent company.

Google is also reimaging its healthcare strategy. In August, an internal memo obtained by Insider showed Google was dismantling its health division, moving the initiatives housed there to more general areas within the company.