- Whoop is rolling out a new version of its Advanced Labs blood-testing program, Specialized Panels
- The program now tests up to 89 biomarkers
- Once tested, you get the results in-app, and Whoop’s AI can use it to provide better health insights
For a while now, Whoop members in the US have had the option to pay an additional fee on top of their annual subscription for Whoop’s Advanced Labs feature.
Whether you’ve got a Whoop 5.0, a Whoop MG or an old-school Whoop 4.0, you can head to the nearest Quest Diagnostics lab, get a blood test for up to 59 biomarkers, and see the results in the Whoop app. Whoop can then add this data to its smorgasbord of collected sleep, heart rate, training and recovery data to provide more personalized health insights.
Whoop has revealed the next stage of this program, Specialized Panels. For a one-time fee of $299, users can get a blood test drawn with Quest Diagnostics providing between 75 and 89 biomarkers spread across one of five ‘panels’: heart health, performance, metabolic function, women’s and men’s health.
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Just like Advanced Labs, the blood test provides information on cardiometabolic risks, vitamin deficiencies, hormones and so on. That information gets turned into ‘clear, actionable insights’, as Whoop’s in-app AI can grab the info and use it in conjunction with all the other data your Whoop band collects. However, these Specialized Panels allow users to drill-down on areas of particular concern. Whoop says ‘this marks a shift from broad, comprehensive testing toward more focused, goal-based insights’.
Whoop’s one of only a handful of health tech companies that have started incorporating blood tests. Oura, makers of the best smart rings, has a Health Panels feature covering 50 biomarkers which costs $99.
Blood testing and tech: Is there anything to worry about?
Blood tests can show all sorts of things, from levels of the stress hormone cortisol, to testosterone or oestrogen levels, to hemoglobin which helps transport oxygen to your muscles and brain. Low hemoglobin levels, for example, can cause tiredness because not enough oxygen is getting to the body parts that need it, and Whoop will factor this in when analyzing your stress, strain and recovery times.
It’s all very clever, but there’s a hidden worry to this: handing your blood over to big tech, and AI integration, and what they might do with such sensitive information.
Whoop’s Head of Healthcare Product, Alex Vannoi, told me via email that: “Specialized Panels are built on the same rigorous foundation as the rest of our platform. We use end-to-end encryption, strict access controls, and continuous monitoring to safeguard data, and only collect what’s necessary to deliver the service.
“When we work with trusted clinical partners, information is shared in a highly controlled way and used solely for its intended purpose.” Whoop also doesn’t train its AI on personally identifiable data.
Whoop works with Quest Diagnostics to draw the blood necessary to deliver these biomarkers. Quest Diagnostics’ privacy policy states that when it collects personal information such as “precise or specific geolocation, information concerning your health, and genetic information”, that info could be passed on to third parties such as “service providers, analytics, marketing, and promotional partners, and third parties for operational purposes.”
Could your blood be used for advertising? It all sounds very Cyberpunk. While blood test results could be considered ‘protected health information’ under US law, the sharing process between Whoop and Quest Diagnostics, outside of a clinical setting, makes it a grayer area. Certainly Whoop seems to treat your data well, but do its partners?
I’ve emailed Quest Diagnostics to ask whether Whoop user’s data could be shared with third parties for marketing purposes, and I’ll update this article if and when I receive a response.
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