Google has reportedly acquired Senosis Health, a start-up owned by Indian-origin professor Shwetak Patel. According to a report in GeekWire, Senosis Health helps turn users’ smartphones into health devices. The company’s is said to “collect health metrics to diagnose pulmonary function, hemoglobin counts and other critical health information.”

Senosis Health’s apps include SpiroSmart and SpiroCall, HemaApp and OsteoApp. Patel founded the company with some other reasearchers from the University of Washington. It is, however, not clear how much Google paid to buy Senosis Health as both Google and Senosis refused to comment on the report.

According to Patel’s profile on Washington University’s website, he is Washington Research Foundation Entrepreneurship endowed professor in computer science and engineering and electrical engineering at the University of Washington, where he directs his research group, the Ubicomp Lab. His research interests are in the areas of human-computer interaction, ubiquitous computing, sensor-enabled embedded systems, and user interface software and technology. His work includes developing new sensing systems, energy and water sensing, mobile health, and developing new interaction technologies.

The acquisition of Senosis Health once again highlights the importance of healthcare technology for Google. In 2015, the company’s foray into health and medicine Google Life Sciences got a new name, Verily. Last month, Verily invested in a life sciences start-up called Freenome.

Late last month, Google also made its first-ever Indian acquisition with AI start-up Halli Labs. In January 2014, Facebook acquired Bengaluru-based Little Eye Labs. The next year, Twitter acquired Bengaluru-based start-up ZipDial. Apple too made its first Indian acquisition in 2016. The company took over Hyderabad-based AI start-up Tuplejump.

Source: Gadgets Now