Dublin digital health start-up Kinesis acquired by Linus Health

30 Mar 2022

Dr Barry Greene and Seamus Small, founders of Kinesis Health Technologies. Image: Nick Bradshaw/Fotonic

The UCD spin-out’s physical assessment tools will support Linus Health’s early detection of brain dysfunction.

Boston company Linus Health announced today (30 March) that it has completed an acquisition of Kinesis Health Technologies.

Kinesis is a University College Dublin spin-out using wearable sensors for the assessment of gait, balance, mobility, fall risks and frailty in older people.

Linus Health is a digital health company focused on brain health. It offers a suite of assessment tools built to detect early indicators of cognitive and brain dysfunction. This will be augmented with the addition of Kinesis’s physical function assessments.

“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 Linus Health CEO Dr David Bates.

“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.”

Founded in 2013, Kinesis Health Technologies is based on 14 years of research and development. The Dublin-based company has produced more than 70 peer-reviewed publications and formed an international network of research partnerships spanning the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland.

Both companies use advanced technology along with consumer devices such as smartphones to make health screening practical and accessible.

“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, CEO of Kinesis.

Kinesis will continue to operate as a subsidiary of Linus Health with Small as its managing director. Co-founder Dr Barry Greene will also stay on as chief technology officer.

Backers of the Irish start-up included a consortium of private investors and Enterprise Ireland.

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Elaine Burke is the host of For Tech’s Sake, a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. She was previously the editor of Silicon Republic.

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