Rewriting the Code of Care: How Joe Kiani's Nutu App Uses Tech and Humanity to Outpace Diabetes

In the halls of high-tech healthcare, it's easy to get swept up in metrics, machines, and market caps. But Joe Kiani, founder of Masimo, Willow Laboratories, and a longtime disruptor in patient safety, is focusing his next chapter on something far more intimate: the daily decisions that shape human lives. And he's using technology to do it; quietly, thoughtfully, and with an emphasis on prevention over intervention.

A pillar of his mission is Nutu, a recently-launched, intuitive health app born from an idea that healthcare should reside in the homes, habits, and hands of individuals.

"What's unique about Nutu is that it's meant to create small changes that will lead to sustainable, lifelong positive results," Kiani explains.

From Response to Anticipation

Kiani is best known for innovations that alert clinicians to danger, like the pulse oximeter that's now a standard in monitoring patients worldwide. But Nutu represents a shift. Instead of alerting to imminent risk, it's designed to detect patterns and guide users before the risk even materializes.

Nutu uses AI and behavioral science to gently steer users toward better choices, using personalized data from wearables, meal tracking, and sleep habits to generate a daily "Nutu Score." This feedback loop becomes a guide, not a lecture—helping users recognize the impact of their decisions in real time.

While the app is built on hard science—years of collaboration with nutritionists, engineers, and endocrinologists—its essence is deeply human: empathy over enforcement, encouragement over pressure. Kiani notes, "We spent years researching," not just to understand metabolism and behavior, but to create a product people would actually want to use.

Personal Choice, Public Health

This intersection of personal wellness and systemic impact is where Nutu could make its boldest contribution. Diabetes, particularly type 2, continues to surge across the globe, burdening not only individuals but entire healthcare infrastructures. While pharmaceutical innovations abound, sustainable prevention remains elusive—often because it depends on long-term behavior change, something notoriously difficult to engineer.

But that's exactly the problem Nutu is built to tackle.

"I want to help people and allow them to make better decisions," Kiani says.

The app's name, derived from the Latin nutus—meaning "a nod" or "nudge"—reflects this quiet strategy.

Rather than overhaul someone's life, Nutu offers manageable insights that align with daily routines. Forgot to hydrate? Ate a heavy lunch? Slept poorly? Your Nutu Score lets you know—and recommends small corrections. No judgment, no scolding. Just a compass that keeps pointing you in a healthier direction.

Engineering for Empathy

This approach is deeply reflective of Kiani's worldview. While many tech founders lean into disruption for disruption's sake, Kiani's drive stems from a belief that better is possible—if it's also humane.

His innovation is reflective of the known limitations of tech when it's divorced from lived experience. Fad diets, restrictive regimens, and rigid fitness programs often fail because they ignore context.

"I've seen so many people start on medication, start on fad diets... and people generally don't stick with those because it's not their habits," Kiani says.

Nutu doesn't ask people to become someone new. It invites them to be slightly better versions of who they already are.

The Long View of Innovation

If there's one common thread throughout Kiani's career, it's his insistence on looking upstream. From his early work in medical monitoring to his leadership in reducing preventable deaths through the Patient Safety Movement, his focus has always been on anticipating harm—not just treating it.

And with Nutu, he's taking that lens further upstream than ever before.

"So much of our efforts go to the last two years of our life, which is probably not even fun anymore," he reflects. "Why not start early? Why not try to prevent the problem?"

This philosophy isn't just a product strategy—it's a call to action for a healthcare system overdue for change. While most funding still goes toward late-stage treatments, tools like Nutu are carving a path toward proactive, people-centered care that leverages both digital precision and human understanding.

Where Tech Meets Trust

In an era where apps promise everything from optimized sleep to eternal youth, Nutu's entrance is refreshing. It doesn't offer silver bullets. It doesn't traffic in guilt. Instead, it acts like a trusted guide—present, consistent, and attuned to your journey.

As the line between health tech and human behavior continues to blur, Nutu could offer a model for future innovation—one where algorithms support autonomy, and where care begins not in the clinic, but in the quiet moments of everyday life.

For Joe Kiani, that's exactly where transformation starts.