Oura Ring users may get in-app access to real doctors soon – what we know

ZDNET’s key takeaways

- Oura is set to acquire Counsel Health for $625 million.

- Oura is evolving from a smart ring seller to a “doctor in your pocket.”

- Oura users will gain access to board-certified physicians.

Oura has entered into an agreement to acquire AI primary care company Counsel Health for $625 million. The acquisition of Counsel Health, which was already a partner in the Oura app, will give users access to Counsel’s in-house physicians and 24/7 medical AI.

Also: I wore the Oura Ring 5 for a month

The Oura Ring has evolved from its beginnings as a sleep tracker to what its CEO, Tom Hale, calls “a doctor in your pocket.” The company has its sights set on making the device a continuous medical companion, and Counsel’s acquisition is one way it’s furthering that mission.

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Oura employs its 24/7 health monitoring to recognize potential deviations from a user’s biometric baseline, and the partnership will build on those capabilities by adding more clinical guidance through Counsel Health.

The partnership will also connect members with Counsel Health’s medical AI and in-house physicians to address timely health problems, support, or “prescriptions for episodic health conditions,” the press release said. The acquisition offers specialty and chronic care for chronic conditions, like reproductive, aging, and cardiometabolic-related conditions.

“Oura tells members what’s happening in their bodies, and Counsel helps them act on it. This combination expands our addressable market and deepens the value we deliver to every member,” David Shuman, executive chairman of Oura, said in a press release.

This is the third acquisition Oura has made this year, following its acquisition of Galen AI, a conversational and personal health platform that connects smart ring data to medical records, and Doublepoint AI, an AI‑driven, biometric and gesture recognition company that could add voice or gesture controls to Oura’s next smart ring.

Also: Before you buy a smart ring, consider what you’re giving up

The Counsel Health deal is expected to close by the end of the year. It’s unknown whether access to Counsel Health physicians or the 24/7 medical AI will be included in an Oura app subscription.

What this deal means

One of the Oura Ring’s superpowers is its ability to detect developing illnesses or deviations from my biometric baseline (a spiked resting heart rate, a higher body temperature) before I feel those symptoms. I’ve written about how my Oura Ring detected an illness earlier this year, one day before I began to feel sick.

Also: I should’ve listened to my Oura Ring when it warned me about my health

When Oura has flagged these concerns to me, I take them seriously, even as my care provider — to whom I show this data — may shrug them off. The Counsel Health acquisition enables medical AI and in-house physicians to contextualize your biometrics when you are sick or managing a chronic condition.

Will this acquisition help ease the demand for urgent care clinics? As a regular visitor to and hater of my Brooklyn CityMD, I hope so. It is notoriously difficult to get a same-day, in-person appointment with a primary care provider in New York because of high demand and a stretched-thin healthcare system, which often leaves urgent care as the only in-person option for patients.

The press release says that users could ask physicians for prescriptions. I’m thinking that if I get another bad cold this winter, I could go to my Oura app for help and symptom management instead of CityMD. Making a physician readily available to Oura users could, in theory, reduce dependence on primary or urgent care providers.