Fitness tracker and wearables maker GOQii has partnered Modality Partnership to launch its services in the United Kingdom, reports ETtech. Modality Partnership is a general practitioners organisation that is operational in 27 locations across Sandwell, Birmingham, Walsall and Hull in England. Modality is part of England’s public health services called National Health Service (NHS).
The report mentions that GOQii ran a pilot programme in the month of August, which focused on patients with chronic disorders such as diabetes and hypertension and provided them access to GOQii’s lifestyle coaching plan. It’s not clear how the company collected patient data in order to monitor progress – were patients handed the fitness trackers at the general practitioner’s location? We’ve written to the company to learn more about the pilot programme and also to find out if GOQii plans to launch its entire suite of services in the UK. We’ll update once we hear from them.
GOQii US: The company had launched its services in the US in January 2015. Initially, it was open only to 500 customers, who received 12 months of personal training, including unlimited chat & monthly video calls via the GOQii app for $99. The fitness tracker wearable was provided free of cost. Currently, the personal coaching plus fitness tracker is available through Amazon Prime for $49 for a three-month plan in the US.
Personal coaching marketplace: GOQii’s personal coaching marketplace was introduced in March 2015. It allows users to hire coaches irrespective of their location. These independent coaches are required to take tests based on a prescribed curriculum and earn a certification to provide their services on the platform, post which they work on a revenue sharing model. The company had mentioned that US-based coaches had been added to the platform and that the app had also been integrated with Apple’s HealthKit.
Recent developments at GOQii
- In July this year, the company released two new updates—GOQii Arena and GOQii Referee—to its platform. ‘Arena’ is an online community that helps GOQii users to connect with other users, while ‘Referee’ is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based feature which allows users to scan food items and get nutrition details. ‘Arena’ can also be used to create a group of people with like-minded fitness goals, share images, activity, and post challenges to each other online.
- In February, the company introduced the heart care update, which allows customers to connect to cardiovascular specialists through an application and has a new GOQii tracker with capabilities to measure heart rate. GOQii’s hospital partner Max Hospital connects customers to doctors.
- In August 2016, the company had introduced payments via NFC, health reports and diagnostics on the second version of the fitness tracker. The company had also tied-up with Thyrocare as their diagnostics partner, and for NFC payments, it partnered with Axis Bank.
