Vitality’s ActiveLife tracks health data from Apple watches

Private health insurance provider Vitality has announced that their transformational life insurance product, ActiveLife, is now using data from Apple watches to track and monitor customer health. 

The move sees the price of the life insurance product linked directly to the results generated from the wearable device.  The launch is an innovative move by Vitality to demonstrate what the future of the life insurance industry could be like. Advances in wearable devices and other monitoring technology can transform underwriting and the management of risk. 

Reports suggest that the next generation of wearable devices that can produce data to clinical standards, are already in development. The concept of being permanently linked to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) or a customer’s medical practice is now a reality for insurance providers.

A long-term plan for wearables and life insurance, Vitality

Ian Mckenna, Founder of Financial Technology Research Centre and the specialist life insurance insurtech Protection Guru, said that the long-term plan involves the UK’s NHS turning it from a service that provides care at the point of need to a service that prevents illness. This change is essential to make the health service economically viable long term, he said. “When these even more sophisticated wearables arrive we may see a whole new distribution channel open up. Could your doctor also become your next life insurance adviser? We are not there yet, but it’s easy to see how it could happen.

Mckenna continued: “Today has seen news emerge of a transformational life insurance product, ActiveLife from Vitality using data from Apple watches. Never before has the pricing of individual life insurance policies been so directly linked to a wearable device.”

He added: “The long-term plan for the NHS is to turn it from a service that provides care at the point of need to a service that prevents illness. This change is essential to make the health service economically viable long term. When these even more sophisticated wearables arrive we may see a whole new distribution channel open up. Could your doctor also become your next life insurance adviser? We are not there yet, but it’s easy to see how it could happen.”