Whoop Hires FDA Digital Health Advisory Committee Chair Ami Bhatt as Chief Medical Officer

Whoop has named Ami Bhatt, a cardiologist who chaired the Food and Drug Administration's first digital health advisory committee, as its chief medical officer, the wearable company said in a press release on July 22, distributed by Business Wire and read via Wedbush.

Bhatt joins from the American College of Cardiology, where she was chief innovation officer. She was previously director of outpatient and telecardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, according to the release, which said her experience "across clinical care, digital health, and AI regulation" would help make the company's science and technology clinically meaningful for members and their clinicians.

A seat on the FDA's digital health panel

Whoop's release describes Bhatt as "the former inaugural Chair of the FDA Digital Health Advisory Committee," saying she had "a direct view into how AI tools are evaluated and brought into care." The committee provides physician and patient input on generative AI-enabled devices and on the use of the technology in digital mental health devices, MedTech Dive reported on July 22. The FDA had not yet named a new chair, the outlet said.

"This is not a goodbye to the mission," Bhatt wrote on LinkedIn, according to MedTech Dive. "It is the same mission, from a different seat."

Role at Whoop

At Whoop, Bhatt will work across the company to bring its health offerings together and shape its consumer health strategy, the release said. The company said her near-term priority is to sharpen what it already does, and that over time the goal is "to establish WHOOP as a trusted bridge between everyday health and clinical care."

"The companies that define this era will combine world-class technology with deep clinical credibility," said Will Ahmed, Whoop's founder and CEO, in the release.

The role had been vacant since 2022, MedTech Dive reported. Patrick Carroll joined Whoop as chief medical officer in November 2022 but left a month later to rejoin Hims & Hers Health, according to the outlet.

Whoop makes wearable wristbands that track sleep, recovery, strain and fitness. The company says its platform includes an FDA-cleared ECG feature, a blood pressure insights feature, a longevity feature and blood biomarker analysis, and that it plans to introduce in-app clinician consultations. MedTech Dive noted that the blood pressure feature is not regulated by the FDA as a medical device. Whoop initially received a warning letter for launching it, but the FDA lifted the warning last month after a change to its guidance allowed blood pressure readings to fall under the agency's wellness exemption, the outlet reported.

Abbott became a strategic investor in Whoop earlier this year, and the company partnered with Quest Diagnostics last year, according to MedTech Dive.