Samsung’s Galaxy Watches will soon receive yet another functionality that will let users measure and track their blood pressure levels. The Samsung Health Monitor app will first launch on the Galaxy Watch Active 2, using its heart rate sensors to track the users blood pressure once its calibrated with a traditional cuff.
To launch the app, Samsung needed to receive clearance from the South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), as a Software as a Medical Device (SaMD). This allowed the app to be released as a government approved, over-the-counter and cuffless blood pressure monitoring application.
To use it, a user must first calibrate the sensor with a traditional blood pressure measuring cuff. After this, every time the user wished to measure their blood pressure, the Watch will use pulse wave analysis from the data it receives from its Heart Rate Monitoring sensors, analyse the data with the calibration value and calculate the blood pressure level. Samsung recommends calibrating the sensor once in every 4 weeks to ensure accuracy.
Samsung Health Monitor app can then track these measurements over time and provide analysis of this data to the user to help them make healthier choices. The Health Monitoring app will be rolling out to Galaxy Watch Active 2 by the end of Q3 2020, with support coming soon for upcoming Watches.
Commenting on the launch, Taejong Jay Yang, Corporate SVP and Head of Health Team, Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics said:
The Samsung Health Monitor app has the potential to help millions of people around the world who are affected by high blood pressure. This is one of many examples of how Samsung is integrating its best-in-class hardware with the latest software innovations to innovate mobile experiences