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Home » Fitness » Fitbit is going after sleep apnea to expand beyond fitness tracking – CNBC

Fitbit, which makes products such as the Flex 2 fitness tracker and Blaze smartwatch, is looking for new ways to keep pace with chief rival Apple in the competitive wearables market. Apple Watch overtook Fitbit in the first quarter of 2017, according to a report from the market research firm Strategy Analytics.

Fitbit's shipments sank 35 percent in the first quarter from the prior year to 2.9 million devices.

Helping diagnose and treat sleep apnea is a major target for tech companies, ranging from small start-ups to bigger companies like Fitbit, because it can be detected with existing sensors. Fitbit plans to track heart rate and fluctuations in oxygen levels.

More specifically, Heneghan's team is looking into using optical technologies that shine a light into the skin. Blood that is highly oxygenated is red, but gets bluer with less oxygen. The technology tracks dips in oxygen levels during the night, a possible indicator of sleep apnea.

"We're leveraging the fact that Fitbit has experience in optical electronics, and making them small and power efficient," said Heneghan.

Fitbit isn't the only wearables company exploring applications beyond health and fitness. Apple is working on an effort to non-invasively track blood glucose, CNBC reported in April. And Jawbone, maker of the UP bands, is now shifting from consumer trackers to clinical health products.

For millions of people with chronic illnesses, whether it's diabetes, heart disease or sleep apnea, these devices become dramatically more useful if they can collect and interpret medical information. The major challenge is getting clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which requires both time and resources.

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Fitbit is going after sleep apnea to expand beyond fitness tracking - CNBC

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Home » Fitness » Fitbit is going after sleep apnea to expand beyond fitness tracking – CNBC