Apple health director exits to keep a promise to sister

APPLE IPHONES
Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks about Apple Watch during a product launch event in September. Apple is using the Watch as its launch point into the health space.
David Paul Morris
Gina Hall
By Gina Hall – Contributor, Silicon Valley Business Journal
Updated

Apple health director Anil Sethi has exited the Cupertino-based company to keep a promise to his sister, who died of cancer in September.

Apple health director Anil Sethi has exited the Cupertino-based company to keep a promise to his sister, who died of cancer in September.

Sethi had been on leave from Apple to care full-time for his sister, Tania, before her passing, according to CNBC. In her final days, he made a promise to her to dedicate his life to bettering cancer care.

Instead of going back to Apple, Sethi will launch Ciitizen, which aims to make it simpler for cancer patients to share information such as genomes, labs, ethical wills or advanced directives with researchers upon request. Sethi will self-fund the venture to start and expects to raise a round of financing in the spring of 2018, per the report.

Anil Sethi
Serial entrepreneur Anil Sethi is leaving Apple, which last year acquired his health data startup Gliimpse, to start a new venture.

Sethi officially announced the company at EndWell, a San Francisco-based conference focused on end-of-life issues, on Thursday.

Apple acquired Sethi’s health data startup, Gliimpse, in 2016 to bolster its products in the healthcare space. Sethi co-founded the Redwood City-based startup in 2013 to help people manage their own healthcare records.

He is a serial entrepreneur who sold Sequoia Software in 2001 to Citrix Systems for more than $180 million. Prior to launching Gliimpse, Sethi started several other healthcare startups, including Xlipstream and Pinch Bio.

Gliimpse’s technology allows users to digitally aggregate their medical info and share the data. The platform also lets users create daily journal entries to track state of mind, lab results and levels of pain. Gliimpse competitors include San Francisco-based startups Picnic Health and Prime.

Sethi said, per CNBC, that Apple executives are enthusiastic about the opportunities for the company in the health sector. He hopes to connect with former colleagues "in the middle" as Apple moves into medical applications.

Apple will likely incorporate the Gliimpse platform into its existing healthcare products, including HealthKit, which stores data from apps on iPhone and Apple Watch; CareKit, the company’s mobile software for health apps; and ResearchKit, an open-source software framework that allows researchers and developers to create apps for medical studies.

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