Gollakota founded the company in 2018 with\u00a0Jacob Sunshine<\/a>, a UW Medicine associate professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine.<\/p>\n Sound Life Sciences\u2019 app monitored breathing using sonar technology to detect movement. The app had the potential to ease the diagnosis of sleep apnea, which traditionally involves an overnight stay at a sleep disorder center. It could also enable people with conditions such as asthma or congestive heart failure to keep track of their respiratory rate.<\/p>\n The company employed five people as of December. The startup also received clearance that month from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market the app, opening the door to reimbursement from insurance companies.<\/p>\n Following the FDA announcement, the company stopped posting on its LinkedIn and Twitter accounts. Its website is no longer active.<\/p>\n In 2017 Google acquired another UW spinout, Senosis Health, founded by UW computer scientist Shwetak Patel<\/a> and four clinicians.<\/p>\n Senosis similarly developed apps to monitor health, including hemoglobin levels and bone strength. Senosis also developed an app to measure breathing by holding a phone at arm\u2019s length and blowing on it.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear how Google is using Sound Life Sciences\u2019 technology, but the tech giant and its parent Alphabet have invested in health technology for several years.<\/p>\n Alphabet subsidiary Verily Life Sciences uses connected devices for patient care and remote clinical trials, such as a watch<\/a>to collect heart rate and other data.<\/p>\n Verily also has a joint venture<\/a> with digital health company ResMed focused on sleep apnea. The venture, called Primasun<\/a>, aims to develop digital tools to help identify, diagnose, treat, and manage the condition and other sleep disorders.<\/p>\n Primasun offers virtual visits with sleep specialists and provides testing \u201cfrom the comfort of your own bed\u201d using \u201cFDA-approved at-home sleep testing.\u201d The venture also offers personalized coaching and monitoring.<\/p>\n Verily recently raised $1 billion<\/a> in venture capital funding, led by Alphabet, which dissolved<\/a> its umbrella program Google Health into multiple teams last year.<\/p>\n Google also doubled down on digital health last year when it scooped up f<\/a>itness wearables company Fitbit for $2.1 billion.<\/p>\n The Senosis deal came with a non-exclusive license, enabling other companies interested in the technology to license it as well. In 2019 Patel said <\/a>he was working with Google on healthcare following the acquisition.<\/p>\n Sunshine told GeekWire in December that the company\u2019s sleep app was just the beginning. \u201cThis is basically that first clearance from which we\u2019ll build more exciting use cases,\u201d he said at the time. He envisioned applications such as infant monitoring and cardiac arrest identification.<\/p>\n The company was a finalist for Health Innovation of the Year <\/a>at the GeekWire Awards in 2020.<\/p>\n Sound Life Sciences was powered with funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority totaling more than $2.5 million.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Sound-Life-Sciences-App-1-630x580.jpg?resize=630%2C580&ssl=1\")