Business
Google buys Shwetak Patel’s health monitoring startup – Senosis Health
Shwetak Patel’s vision is to bring alternatives to screening tools that could serve as a first line of defense to counter conditions like asthma and jaundice.
According to reports, computer scientist and founder Shwetak Patel has sold his newest startup, Senosis Health, to Google. Patel’s previous companies were acquired by companies like Belkin International and Sears.
Shwetak Patel.
(UW Photo)
Google has long been interested in medical-tech, Google Fit, much like Apple’s HealthKit, enables users to record their biometrics through fitness bands, smartwatches and apps. Thus, the acquiring of Shwetak Patel’s Senosis Health could be seen as a step further toward their med-tech objectives.
Senosis Health is looking to take smartphones and even ‘not-so-smartphones’ and turn them into health monitoring devices that would not just monitor but also diagnose pulmonary functions, hemoglobin counts and so on. The company’s apps, including SpiroSmart and SpiroCall, HemoApp and OsteoApp, were being reviewed by the going through the US Food and Drug Administration earlier in the year. Patel’s company wants to make use of the cameras, accelerometers and microphones on modern-day smartphones making it a kind of healthcare diagnostic tool.
Spirometry 360 provides training in developing countries
Shwetak Patel’s vision is to bring alternatives to screening tools that could serve as a first line of defense to counter conditions like asthma and jaundice. If the app, tracking a person’s biometrics, picks up an issue, it could serve as a type of alert to go for further screening and professional assistance. The approach has been tested in India and Bangladesh – reportedly with encouraging results.
