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Picture the scene: breakfast time in a hectic family kitchen, with homework, work emails and chatter. A monitor sits discreetly on a counter, showing not only the weather and family calendar, but everybody\u2019s health stats. <\/p>\n
One child might be about to come down with a cold; another needs an early night after too-little REM sleep. Someone else needs motivation to exercise after a sedentary day, while another, newly diagnosed with pre-diabetes, receives AI nutritional coaching over a bowl of porridge.<\/p>\n
It sounds futuristic, but it may not be far off for fans of Oura <\/a>\u2014 the Finnish company behind the health- and sleep-tracking ring worn by more than 5.5 million people, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston. <\/p>\n Oura\u2019s chief executive, Tom Hale, believes that, thanks to the firm\u2019s vast bank of biometric data, the ring\u2019s predictive power could soon transform healthcare itself. \u201cMedicine has been trying to get people to change their behaviour for 100 years,\u201d he says over a mint tea at 180 Strand. \u201cWe know what to do. The problem is getting people to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Lord of the Rings\u2019 Tom Hale, CEO of Oura<\/p>\n Oura<\/p>\n Oura\u2019s mission now is to become a hi-tech preventative care tool \u2014 moving away from solely being perceived as a sleep tracker. And thanks to $900 million (\u00a3675 million) of funding announced two weeks ago, which took the company\u2019s valuation to $11 billion (\u00a38.3billion), it is in an even better position to get there.<\/p>\n A big leap towards preventative healthcare came in March with the launch of an AI <\/a>\u201cadviser\u201d: a conversational health companion trained on each wearer\u2019s biometric data. Acting as a personal coach, it analyses everything from sleep and stress to diet<\/a>. Hale demonstrates by photographing a cookie beside his mint tea. The AI adviser identifies it as \u201ca tasty treat\u201d, adding that the sugar it contains could cause energy levels to spike then dip. As Hale says, \u201cinsights are generated from your data and are presented in context\u201d \u2014 which might be just enough to make you swerve the biscuit.<\/p>\n As well as offering contextual coaching, Oura\u2019s AI aims to build relationships. \u201cIt remembers you,\u201d Hale says. \u201cOne user told us they liked that it remembered their dog\u2019s name and reminded them to take it for a walk. That relationship builds intimacy and consistency \u2014 and therefore behaviour change.\u201d<\/p>\n Supplied<\/p>\n With millions of users, Oura\u2019s datasets are among the richest in consumer health. Using clinical-grade sensors, the ring monitors shifts in temperature, resting heart rate and heart rate variability to detect early signs of illness or strain. Internal studies suggest users who respond to alerts \u2014 by resting or easing up on workouts \u2014 often avoid getting ill.<\/p>\n Oura is also moving into women\u2019s health, an arena which Hale believes has long been \u201cunder-served\u201d by the medical industry. The ring can help women conceive by predicting ovulation more accurately than traditional sticks. <\/p>\n Its pregnancy insights act like a \u201cdigital ultrasound for the mother,\u201d drawing on data from \u201ctens of thousands\u201d of pregnant users. \u201cWe can show a range of \u2018normal\u2019,\u201d Hale says, \u201cto help reassure women that their symptoms are within a range.\u201d The system can even predict when women might give birth, and support mothers post-partum.<\/p>\n Another area of research is perimenopause. \u201cSo many women want to know when they\u2019re going to actually start perimenopause,\u201d Hale says. He points to emerging science linking ovarian age to longevity<\/a>: \u201cIf you have a later onset of menopause, then you\u2019re going to live longer and healthier. What we need to understand is whether that\u2019s cause or correlation.\u201d Oura, he says, is working on ways to provide \u201csome sense of your ovarian age\u201d.<\/p>\n Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n Next on the horizon: tracking the effects of GLP-1 weight- loss drugs such as Ozempic<\/a>. Users can already tag that they\u2019re taking them and the company is \u201cworking down the path of being what we would call a GLP-1 companion,\u201d Hale says. The concern, he explains, is that some patients lose muscle as well as fat, \u201cso ultimately you become weaker, which leads to health concerns down the line.\u201d Researchers are now exploring drugs that regenerate muscle by using stem cells to alter the epigenome.<\/p>\n Rewarded for staying well<\/p>\n Along with its futuristic ambitions, Oura has an eye on today\u2019s healthcare economic challenges. In January it partnered with Essence Healthcare in the US, providing rings to thousands of Medicare Advantage members aged 65 and over. The aim is to improve outcomes by nudging older adults towards healthier behaviour long before chronic conditions develop.<\/p>\n \u201cIn traditional \u2018fee-for-service\u2019 systems, insurers pay when patients get ill; in value-based care, they\u2019re rewarded when patients stay well,\u201d Hale says. The thinking being that if Oura can help people sleep better, move more and avoid metabolic disease, the savings could be enormous.<\/p>\n Oura<\/p>\n It\u2019s a model that could resonate with the NHS<\/a>, which spends an estimated 40 per cent of its budget treating preventable diseases linked to poor lifestyle habits. Hale says Oura has \u201csome interactions with the NHS, and I think they kind of get it, but they need evidence\u201d.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SEI271604211.jpeg\")
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