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One of the most intriguing aspects of the recent releases by Samsung was the implications for what the company’s approach to wearables could mean to health care moving forward.

From my personal experience, and anecdotal evidence from others who have fought major illnesses, are contending with chronic diseases or are fighting auto-immune diseases, healthcare quickly becomes the top priority in one’s life.

As well, during the course of one’s treatment, being able to have consistent and accurate information on one’s health metrics that one can share with one’s medical team is a game changer, and can even be a life-saver. 

But, as Samsung noted and I can personally attest, navigating today's scattered health data and healthcare system is a challenge.

Investing in a healthy future

Firstly, if you are seeking a diagnosis, or dealing with an illness, those dealing with undiagnosed symptoms often find themselves having to advocate for their own treatment and convincing their doctor/s to take their symptoms seriously. This often means waiting for symptoms to get worse before you can get a firm diagnosis and treatment plan.

Having provable, consistent metrics, gathered from an always on smartwatch over a period of time, could help immensely. Even after recovery, or inbetween flares of chronic diseases, there is an urgent need to re-establish healthy habits so as to rebuild long-term wellbeing.

And, if you are healthy, and trying to establish ongoing wellbeing, then it is challenging for a different reason. The medical arena is largely geared towards treating illness, not preventing it. Ongoing metrics that point to a possible issue down the line can help forestall sickness and the need for more extensive (and expensive) treatment later on.

Whether dealing with an illness, recovering from one or not ill but trying to build stable long-term wellbeing throughout one’s life, there is so much that could be improved upon. It is increasingly becoming apparent that wearables and smart technology can play a significant role in building, establishing, or regaining one’s wellness at any stage on one's journey to health. 

Preventative Care Through Early Detection

Samsung’s most recent smartwatch devices, and their new sensors, may hold some of the answers.

The company explained that its new Galaxy Watch8 series in particular has shifted the focus to fostering preventative care, by providing users with clear, actionable insights based on their lifestyle patterns to help them understand their body and mind more deeply, build healthy habits and help identify silent threats early on.

Samsung elaborates that with new heart metrics, Galaxy Watch8 series spots the potential for several health issues sooner, so users can prevent them before they start.

For example, the Watch8’s enhanced Electrocardiogram (ECG) can better capture ectopic beats – premature heartbeats that often go undetected in routine checkups as they frequently occur without noticeable symptoms. It is well known that frequent ectopic beats can be considered clinically significant and may lead to arrhythmias that drive up stroke and heart-failure risk.

According to Samsung, the Galaxy Watch8 series provides enhanced ECG measurement with the ability to differentiate instances of frequent ectopic beats providing earlier insights to support preventive care.

But being able to monitor one's heart rate and track trends is also key in many instances for helping one stay healthy when dealing with chronic conditions. For example, a consistent slower heartbeat over a period of time (below 65 bpm) can point to hypthyroidism, where one's metabolism slows to a crawl, and makes sufferers feel like they are the walking dead. This can also be the result of certain cancers or an auto-immune disease, Hashimoto’s, which attacks the thyroid gland and compromises its functionality.

 A consistently raised resting heartbeat (above 100 bpm)  can be an indicator for hyperthyrioidism, where one's metabolic rate is too fast. This can be a problem of its own, or a result of other underlying causes, such as Graves disease.

For those who have had their thyroid removed, whether because of cancer, or no longer have a functioning thyroid, due to Hashimoto’s, lifelong medication is needed, and finding the right balance of this can be perilous, arduous and a struggle. However, knowing one’s heartrate (along with other metrics) can go a long way to finding the optimal balance of medication, and enabling one to find one’s way back to wellness.  

Another leading cause of death is heart attack, often due to narrowing of one’s arteries and reduced blood flow that results. Therefore, ensuring one’s heart is healthy throughout one’s lifetime and there is not a risk of a heart attack is a health imperative. To this end, the new sensors in the Galaxy Watch8 also helps users determine their Vascular load.

To do this, the Galaxy Watch8 reads Photoplethysmogram (PPG) waveforms – optical signals associated with blood flow during sleep. It measures blood volume and vascular stiffness and precisely analyses changes in stress on blood vessels. Because diet, stress, and rest all affect this metric, regular monitoring shows which habits to fine-tune and helps one cut cardiovascular risk before it takes hold.  

Lifestyle Changes Motivated by Sensor-Driven Insights

Along with exercise, two key components of health are good nutrition and good sleep, with the latter being shown to impact on mental, as well as physical health. According to the Sleep Foundation, getting a consistent good night’s sleep is imperative to strengthening our immune systems, improving emotional resilience, moderating blood sugar levels (a key part of maintaining a healthy weight and body mass index) and supporting heart health, to name a few of the benefits. 

 To this end, the company noted that the Galaxy Watch8 series’ advanced sensors deliver personalised guidance. Developed by KAIST and clinically tested at Samsung Medical Center, this feature helps build healthier sleep routines that lead to deeper, less interrupted sleep and more energised mornings.

 Samsung noted that the Galaxy Watch8 series’ advanced sensor now gives users more immediate insights for their nutrition and sleep patterns to steer them towards lasting, sustainable habits. These include:

Antioxidant Index: Because lifestyle often outweighs genetics, the Galaxy Watch8 series shines a light on one’s daily choices. The BioActive Sensor measures skin carotenoids in five seconds using multi-wavelength absorption spectroscopy. After analysing these carotenoids, an antioxidant which reflects fruit and vegetable intake, you are given a score of 0–100, which is categorised into one of three levels. This score shows how diet, UV light, alcohol and stress are impacting your antioxidant levels. With insufficient fruit and vegetable intake linked to major health risks, this non-invasive metric offers meaningful insight, promotes healthier choices and adds another layer of prevention to one’s daily routine.

Bedtime Guidance: Leveraging the science behind the two-process model of sleep regulation, the Galaxy Watch8 series tracks your circadian rhythm (internal body clock) and sleep pressure (how much your body needs sleep), over three days. It then interprets this data as a differential equation to calculate the optimal bedtime for waking up refreshed. The algorithm uses changes in sleep threshold and individual sleep needs throughout the day to deliver personalised guidance. Developed by KAIST and clinically tested at Samsung Medical Center, this feature helps build healthier sleep routines that lead to deeper, less interrupted sleep and more energised mornings.

Pioneering the Next Era of Preventative Care

The company enthused that its latest sensor innovations are ''setting a new standard for preventative care, with the Galaxy Watch8 series helping users unify their patterns, expose hidden risks, and deliver real-time actionable insights so that people can safeguard their health in advance.''

And, if the company is heading in the direction that I think it is, with AI, then an AI infused smartphone, like the latest  Galaxy Z Fold 7, along with the new Watch 8, may just turn out to be the best, and most exciting tools in the fight against chronic diseases and in the journey towards sustainable wellbeing that we have ever held in our hands - or had on our wrist.