Name: Ami Bhatt
New title: Chief medical officer, Whoop
Previous title: Chief innovation officer, American College of Cardiology
Whoop on Wednesday named Ami Bhatt as the company’s new chief medical officer, as the wearables firm makes a broader push into health.
Bhatt, a cardiologist with experience in digital health, joins the company after working as chief innovation officer at the American College of Cardiology. In that role, Bhatt led efforts that included helping clinicians make sense of wearable data and come up with best practices for artificial intelligence, according to a LinkedIn post.
“This is not a goodbye to the mission,” Bhatt wrote on LinkedIn. “It is the same mission, from a different seat.”
Bhatt is also chair of the Food and Drug Administration’s first digital health advisory committee, which provides physician and patient input on generative AI-enabled devices and the use of the technology in digital mental health devices. The FDA has not yet named a new chair.
At Whoop, Bhatt will work to bring the company’s various health offerings together and shape its consumer health strategy. Over the long term, the goal is to build a bridge between everyday health and clinical care, Whoop said in a statement.
Bhatt is filling a CMO role that has been vacant since 2022. Patrick Carroll joined the company as CMO in November 2022, but left a month later to rejoin digital health firm Hims & Hers Health.
Whoop, which makes wearable wristbands that track sleep, recovery, strain and fitness, has looked to add more health features to its recent offerings. The company has an FDA-cleared ECG function. It also has a blood pressure insights feature, which is not regulated by the FDA as a medical device.
Whoop initially received a warning letter for launching the feature, but the FDA lifted the warning last month following a change to its guidance that allows blood pressure readings to fall under the agency’s wellness exemption.
Whoop has made other strides, including adding medtech firm Abbott as a strategic investor earlier this year, and partnering with Quest Diagnostics last year.
