US digital health firm acquires UCD spin-out
Posted 31 March, 2022
Dr Barry Greene and Seamus Small, founders, Kinesis Health Technologies
UCD spun-out (opens in a new window)Kinesis Health Technologies has been acquired by Boston-based digital health company (opens in a new window)Linus Health, as part of the firm’s broadening of its brain health assessment portfolio.
The two companies share a focus on utilizing cutting-edge machine learning and widely accessible digital devices to make proactive health screening more practical and prevalent.
Founded in 2013 by Seamus Small and Dr Barry Greene as a spin-out from the Technology Research for Independent Living (TRIL) Centre at UCD, Kinesis utilises sensors, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to produce comprehensive and accurate assessments of gait, mobility, balance, and falls risk in older adults.
The firm has built a robust validation base with over 70 peer-reviewed publications and a network of research partnerships around the world.
Its customers – spanning numerous countries, including the US, Canada, the UK, and Ireland – have conducted more than 40,000 patient assessments to date with Kinesis’ technology.
“Kinesis shares Linus Health’s vision of combining clinical expertise with machine learning to usher in a new paradigm of proactive screening and intervention to support older adults seeking to preserve their health and way of life,” said Seamus Small, Kinesis CEO.
“We’re excited to join the Linus team and work together to bring effective and impactful digital screening solutions to more people around the world.”
Linus Health’s suite of assessments already incorporates multiple modalities shown to play a role in revealing subtle indicators of cognitive and brain dysfunction.
As the company expands its brain health platform, deepening its capabilities around physical measures, such as gait and balance, is a key step in augmenting the insights available to inform both its brain health analyses and recommendations.
“The more we can uncover about a person’s brain health, the faster we’ll be able to help providers intervene when something is awry,” said Dr David Bates, Linus Health CEO.
“Acquiring Kinesis provides the opportunity to accelerate our progress in the key areas of gait, balance, and mobility – and garner related insights to shape our understanding of a patient's health and associated risks to better inform our clinical guidance and care plan recommendations. We’re looking forward to collaborating with the Kinesis team to enhance our combined impact.”
Kinesis was the overall winner of the 2013 UCD VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme which is managed by NovaUCD.
Kinesis will operate as a subsidiary of Linus Health. Seamus Small, will assume the position of Managing Director, Kinesis and Dr Barry Greene will retain the position of Chief Technology Officer, Kinesis.
By: David Kearns, Digital Journalist / Media Officer, UCD University Relations (with materials from Micéal Whelan, UCD Research and Innovation)
