Oura unveils AI health model tailored to women's needs

Ōura has launched its first proprietary large language model focused on women's health. It is rolling out to members for testing through Oura Labs as part of its Oura Advisor feature.

The model combines clinician-curated medical knowledge with data from the Oura Ring and the wider app. Responses are tailored to women's physiology and life stages, and delivered through Oura Advisor, the company's conversational interface built on generative AI and Oura's health-sensing algorithms.

The launch comes as consumers increasingly use search engines and AI tools to look up symptoms and health conditions. Oura cited survey findings that most US adults search online for health information and many encounter AI-generated answers in results.

Women's focus

The model covers the reproductive health spectrum, from early menstrual cycles through menopause, according to Oura. It is designed to reflect women's lived experiences and physiological differences, shifting from general-purpose systems to models tuned for specific health contexts.

It draws on medical standards, research and other knowledge sources reviewed by Oura's in-house clinicians and women's health experts. The system also uses biometric signals and long-term trends to personalise guidance.

When a member asks a women's health question in Advisor, the system references this curated research and knowledge base. It also analyses relevant biometric signals and longitudinal trends across sleep, activity, cycle and pregnancy data, stress and other metrics.

Oura says it has tuned responses to be non-dismissive and emotionally supportive. It described this as particularly important for sensitive topics such as cycle changes and perimenopause, where online answers can vary widely in quality.

Ricky Bloomfield, Ōura's chief medical officer, described the work as a shift in how the company deploys AI in health.

"This custom model is a fundamental shift in how we responsibly deploy AI in health to meet the needs of our members." -Ricky Bloomfield, MD, Chief Medical Officer, ŌURA

Clinical framing

Chris Curry, clinical director of women's health at Ōura and a board-certified OB/GYN, said the model aims to help users prepare for discussions with clinicians.

"Women's health questions are often deeply personal and high-stakes, and they deserve answers that can be trusted," said Chris Curry, MD, Clinical Director of Women's Health, ŌURA and board-certified OB/GYN.

"With this model, we're providing the kind of preparation and insight that I wish every one of my patients had before coming to their appointment. For example, if someone asks, 'Why has my cycle suddenly become irregular, and is that something to worry about?' Oura Advisor can walk them through what's typical, what their data may be showing, and what would be most helpful to surface in conversations with their provider. It translates complex science into clear, compassionate, always-available guidance-helping women connect what they're feeling with what they're seeing in their data, and allowing them to walk into discussions about their health more informed, confident, and in control of their decisions," said Curry.

Testing model

Oura Labs is an opt-in programme where members can test new features and provide feedback, and they can opt out at any time. Oura describes it as a test environment where features can be refined, removed, or folded into the core app based on evaluation and member input.

Oura says women who test the model will help shape its development through feedback, as the company looks to expand insights across cycles, fertility, pregnancy and hormonal health.

Privacy approach

Ōura positioned the model as part of a privacy-first approach. It says the model is hosted on Oura-controlled infrastructure and that conversations are not shared or sold.

The company said its clinical and technical teams built the model and used knowledge-graph technology from webAI. It described this owned-and-operated approach as an early step in a broader plan for what it calls private AI.

Ōura, founded in Finland in 2013, sells the Oura Ring wearable and subscription-based app services that track metrics across sleep, activity, stress and other categories. The company says it supports millions of members worldwide and works with research teams, healthcare providers and organisations. It lists its EU headquarters in Oulu and its US headquarters in San Francisco.

Further development and wider availability of the women's health model will depend on results from the Oura Labs testing programme and ongoing feedback from participating members.