NASA teams with Fitbit on COVID related wellness program

NASA is offering employees a Fitbit device and access to the wellness company’s Ready for Work solution, as part of a pilot program to help employees prevent COVID-19 exposures in their workplace.

Fitbit’s Ready for Work Solution is a program spurred by the pandemic that gives employees access to key health metrics from their Fitbit device; including exposure data as well as symptom and temperature logging, as part of a daily check-in feature that provides employees with guidance on whether to go into the workplace.

“Employers had really an unprecedented challenge of how [to] support, engage and stay connected to our workforce and support their mental and physical health,” says Amy McDonough, managing director and general manager of Fitbit health solutions at Google. “As we went through the [start of the] pandemic, we felt that we had an opportunity and a responsibility to provide solutions for our customers at that time.”

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As part of the pilot program, 1,000 NASA employees across the U.S. will receive Fitbit Charge 4 devices and access to Fitbit’s Ready for Work daily check-in tool. The employees — including astronauts and other mission critical staff — will use the Fitbit solution as part of the NASA Health Stabilization Program, which is aimed at mitigating the risk of infectious disease among astronaut flight crews during the preflight period. NASA was not available for comment.

The in-app daily check-in feature allows users to log their symptoms and temperature, track key health metrics and receive summarized COVID-19 guidance based on CDC guidelines. The goal of the Fitbit pilot program is to help NASA and its employees prevent the spread of COVID-19 while also supporting the overall health and well-being of NASA employees. Employees will also have access to one year of Fitbit Premium and one-on-one Fitbit health coaching services.

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“NASA’s immediate goal was to make sure that they could support the astronauts and other employees during the pandemic, so they launched this pilot program,” McDonough says. “NASA built a really holistic approach to help keep them healthy, safe, active and mindful during this period. It also keeps them thinking about their work environment as they may need to come into an office and aware of their personal health metrics.”

NASA will review the program and consider expanding it to a larger employee population based on whether it helps prevent the spread of COVID-19 and supports the health and wellness of NASA employees.

“Employees are an organization’s most valuable asset,” McDonough says. “Making sure that they can keep their employees, safe, healthy and well is really important. We've seen that employers have really stepped up to that challenge and they really want to help support their individual employees’ health, mental and physical well-being and want to offer services to make sure that they can support their employees.”