LONDON, U.K. – Sept. 27, 2024 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today introduced a new Samsung Health Software Development Kit (SDK) Suite. Designed to better support developers and researchers in creating innovative healthcare solutions, the SDK Suite leverages Samsung’s advanced sensor technology and comprehensive Samsung Health platform. The new complete package of sensor, data, accessory and research stack components is now readily accessible to an expanded range of partners, developers and researchers.

Sensor SDK: Fueling Health Services Development through Advanced Sensor Technology

The Sensor SDK provides developers with Samsung’s powerful BioActive Sensor algorithm on the Galaxy Watch, empowering them to explore new sectors of health services and create advanced new solutions. The BioActive Sensor measures a diverse range of health metrics including heart rate, skin temperature, electrocardiogram (ECG) and Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA). A notable update features continuous access to Photoplethysmogram (PPG) Infrared (IR) and Red LED sensor data for the first time. This advancement will help enhance health services related to blood oxygen level (SpO2) to improve sleep quality and beyond. The upgraded BIA now provides additional measurements—magnitude and degree—expanding on the existing eight indicators, including skeletal muscle mass and body fat mass, to present more precise body composition analysis to offer deeper insights into overall physical health.

Data SDK: Comprehensive Health Insights Unlock New Value in Health Services

Starting from October, the newly added Data SDK enables developers to utilise integrated health data gathered from diverse devices such as Galaxy Watch, Galaxy Ring, smartphones or even third-party devices to create innovative digital health solutions. Data SDK provides access to health metrics on the Samsung Health app—including sleep, exercise, blood pressure, food intake, and blood glucose levels—analysed by its advanced algorithm. These streamlined insights generated by Samsung Health enable developers to enhance their productivity when developing the healthcare services.

Accessory SDK: Holistic Health Insights from Various Health Devices in One Place

With Accessory SDK, developers can integrate compatible third-party heath devices—such as blood pressure monitors, fitness devices like bike sensors, heart rate monitors and even glucose monitors—through the Samsung Health app. This makes it easy to view health status information in one place without activating separate third-party apps, promoting a seamless and simplified experience and expanding the ecosystem for end-to-end health management.

Research Stack: Empowering Research Institutions To Further Support the Healthcare Industry

Research Stack is an open-source project that aims to expand the digital health research ecosystem. Research Stack creates a flexible and versatile research environment, by providing not only the mobile and wearable app SDK but also web portal and backend services, to support all stages of the research process, from recruitment and surveys to progress tracking and results monitoring. The recently updated Research Stack boasts a comprehensive toolset developed based on valuable feedback from research institutions and their experiences implementing complex, large-scale studies. Additionally, the forthcoming 2.0 version will directly integrate Sensor SDK and Data SDK from the Health SDK Suite. Research Stack has already been used by leading institutions as part of their research and discovery processes, underscoring Samsung’s active support for the healthcare industry, providing researchers with more efficient studies and meaningful results.

To learn more about the new Samsung Health SDK Suite, please visit:  https://developer.samsung.com/health.

Furthering this mission, Samsung is raising the bar again and introducing the newest iteration of its BioActive Sensor. Coming to the next Galaxy Watch, the new sensor will enable advanced predictive and preventative wellness features never before seen on a wearable device — in addition to more accurate health measurements.^[2]

Introducing Samsung’s New BioActive Sensor

The all-new BioActive Sensor is essential to bringing you better preventative health experiences on the next Galaxy Watch, with design improvements that enable even more precise health insights. Samsung engineers focused on three upgrades to the new sensor: enhancing the performance of light-receiving photodiodes, adding additional colors of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and arranging them optimally across the sensor.

Samsung more than doubled the performance of each photodiode, successfully decreasing the number needed to maintain capacity from eight to four. This redesign freed up additional space for the integration of a larger number and variety of LEDs and ensured their optimal placement across the sensor. The new sensor now includes Blue, Yellow, Violet and Ultraviolet LEDs in addition to an increased number of Green, Red and Infrared LEDs. With the integration and arrangement of these LEDs, photodiodes and specially designed photodiode, Samsung is taking innovation one step further and is now able to pursue unexplored aspects of health monitoring on wearables.

Bringing Greater Accuracy and New Possibilities for Preventative Wellness

The optimal allocation of Green, Red and Infrared LEDs sets new standards in wearable technology by improving accuracy and enabling exceptional performance across a broad array of health metrics. This allows the new BioActive Sensor to more accurately measure health metrics such as heart rate, sleep quality, blood pressure^[3], blood oxygen levels and stress levels^[4]. Even the measurement of heart rate during intensive workouts is 30% more accurate compared to its predecessor.

The more diverse colors of LEDs and newly designed photodiodes unlock new possibilities and empower you to better predict trends and take proactive steps for preventative care. The first of these features will be an Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) Index^[5] — an indicator of metabolic health and biological aging strongly influenced by overall lifestyle and dietary habits. Used as an insightful biomarker, this index provides a snapshot of your biological age to help you make more informed decisions about your wellness journey and work towards a healthier future. The addition of an AGEs Index is just one of the many new advanced features planned for the next Galaxy Watch.

The next Galaxy Watch will bring more sophisticated and intelligent health and wellness tools to help you reach your goals.

[1] Requires smartphone operating on Android 11 or above with Google Mobile Services and the latest version of the Samsung Health app. Samsung account login and Galaxy smartphone is required for certain AI features.

[2] Compared to Galaxy Watch6.

[3] The Blood Pressure feature is only available in select markets. To ensure accuracy, users should calibrate their device every four weeks with a traditional blood pressure cuff. The BP app cannot diagnose hypertension, other conditions, or check for signs of a heart attack. This app can only be used for measuring in ages 22 and over. It is not meant to replace traditional methods of diagnosis or treatment by a qualified healthcare professional.

[4] Galaxy Watch is intended for general wellness and fitness purposes only. Not intended for use in detection, diagnosis, or treatment of any medical condition or disease.

[5] AGEs Index monitoring will be available on upcoming Galaxy Watch series. The Galaxy Watch uses light sensors that operate within the limits set by the IEC62471 safety regulations. However, people with photosensitive skin may have adverse reactions to light, such as skin discoloration or a rash. Avoid using this feature if you experience symptoms of photosensitivity. AGEs Index monitoring is for fitness and wellness only, not for the diagnosis and treatment of any medical condition. If you’re concerned about your health, please consult a medical professional for advice.

Next week, Samsung will share its latest lineup of innovative products designed to enhance users’ everyday lives, including updates that empower fitness and wellness routines. Ahead of the unveiling, we’d like to take the time to reflect on our philosophy, achievements, and the progress that we have made as we approach our most recent step in our health journey.

The world has entered a new era of wellness, seeing a growing desire for a more nuanced understanding of overall health. In the past, health was a simple concept with a single definition. Now, everyone defines health and wellness by what it means to them. To accommodate everyone’s health goals, Samsung is committed to ensuring that everyone has access to the resources they need, so they can work towards the best version of themselves.

To that end, we are focused on setting new standards for health experiences through our Galaxy Watch series, and across our broader product portfolio. We have established three key pillars to help people reach their own goals: sensor innovation, connected wellness and industry collaboration.

Advanced Sensors for More Meaningful Insights

To create healthier habits and reach goals, it’s important that we know ourselves better. For our users, this journey starts with Samsung’s groundbreaking BioActive Sensor. The BioActive Sensor delivers accurate and comprehensive health data and provides actionable insights and guidance which users can leverage during their health and wellness journey.

First introduced with the Galaxy Watch4, the BioActive Sensor uses a unique single chip that combines three powerful health sensors – Optical Heart Rate (PPG), Electrical Heart Signal (ECG) and Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) – into one compact unit. Its streamlined design enhances performance and fits comfortably for increased accuracy and 24/7 usage. This helps users deepen their understanding, encourages action, and strengthens good habits to help them achieve their goals.

Our sensor provides insights across all aspects of health, but we’d like to highlight two key areas: sleep and body composition. Sleep is often an afterthought when establishing a solid wellness routine, but it is essential for holistic health. At Samsung, we’re serious about helping our community get better sleep. We’ve introduced various sleep quality tracking tools and launched a tailored sleep coaching programme, all aimed to help users get a more restful night’s sleep.

When it comes to fitness, in particular, everyone’s goals are different. That’s why BioActive Sensor also measures body composition, which deepens users’ knowledge of their physical health, far beyond merely losing weight. The sensor sends microcurrents to measure weight maintained, skeletal muscle gained, body fat lost and body water levels, relative to goals set, helping users hit targets and keep track of what matters to them.

Across these advancements, we remain intensely committed to the secure and private collection of data to give our users peace of mind during their wellness journeys. All health data is encrypted and secured on the device itself and guarded by Knox, ensuring users’ information remains isolated from unauthorised sources.

Wellness That Spans All Devices

We are also providing tools that allow consumers to track overall health and wellness — whether they’re at home, in the gym, or on the road. The Samsung Health app, with more than 200 million active global users, is at the centre of Samsung’s health experience across an extensive range of devices, from smartwatches to smartphones, tablets and even TVs. The app — a holistic health hub that consolidates fitness, wellness, and health monitoring capabilities — records and compiles all kinds of health data and activity information, presents them intuitively, and gives guidance on how to leverage that data to maximise results. The collected information is comprehensive, easy-to-understand, and encourages positive action.

 More connected devices means a more seamless and enhanced user experience. While following guided workout or meditation programmes on Samsung Smart TVs or Galaxy Tabs at home, for example, your calorie count and heart rate are tracked on your Galaxy Watch but viewed on the larger screen for easier access. Your Galaxy Watch also recognises when you fall asleep and automatically dims lights and turns off air conditioners in response.

Open Collaboration Means Better Health Experiences

To give our users the best experience possible, we partner with other leaders in technology and wellness. We have built a strong foundation with our technology, and we welcome collaboration on our open ecosystem — one that often serves as an incubator for exciting new applications, services and features. In collaboration with Google, we co-developed Wear OS and Health Connect so that more users can join the unified platform and take advantage of new services and solutions to meet everyone’s needs.  

Samsung works extensively with third-party experts, research centres, and universities to further advance wearable tracking and insight capabilities, including the National Sleep Foundation for sleep, the University of California San Diego Sleep Laboratory and the University of California, San Francisco Hypoxia Research Laboratory for sleep and blood oxygen research, and Louisiana State University, Pennington Biomedical Research Center and the University of Hawaii Cancer Center for BIA research, to name a few. We’re also committed to researching new ways our health solutions can be used in the medical field. In the coming months, we’re focused on developing more tools and resources that will support the medical community and give our users a more holistic view of their health records. 

The Promising Future of Health and Wellness

In the last few years, many people around the world have adopted new habits and interests. For many, these include a greater awareness of physical, mental and sleep health. To meet this demand, Samsung is excited to continue expanding our Galaxy Watch lineup to better cater to the many unique needs of our users — especially those with a passion for the outdoors.

Our work, however, does not stop there. We are constantly innovating and investing in research and development and exploring new ways to work with our trusted partners. Through open collaboration and focused innovation, we will ensure our users are equipped with advanced technologies that empower them to better understand their own minds and bodies for a truly integrated, holistic experience of health and wellness.

We can’t wait for you to see what’s next. Please be sure to tune in to Galaxy Unpacked on August 10 at 2pm BST on Samsung.com.