Samsung Health Hub Aims to Simplify Doctor-Patient Communication

Samsung is reportedly developing a hub for patients to share health data with their doctors.

That’s according to a report Monday (June 16) from Bloomberg News, which noted that the project is designed to help people remember the guidance their healthcare providers offered during appointments.

Samsung health executive Dr. Hon Pak said the tech giant is at work on tools to shrink that disconnect, compile data collected on watches into a central location and encourage users to keep on top of goals prescribed by their doctors.

“There are a lot of innovations out there but it’s siloed,” Pak said in an interview with Bloomberg. “We think there’s a responsibility and a potential for bringing the experience into an ecosystem so that the users have a more simple experience rather than having 10 different apps to manage your condition.”

The report noted that the new hub won’t debut for a while, though Samsung is releasing new health-related features for its smartwatches.

Announced Monday as part of an update to its One UI 8 software, these offerings include tools for measuring antioxidant levels and vascular load as well as a running coach and an enhanced sleep management product.

“When it comes to health, small changes can make a big difference,” Samsung said. “Every incremental improvement to daily habits contribute to a healthier whole, and the upcoming One UI 8 Watch is designed to help build these habits more effectively through a suite of new features that support sleep, heart health, fitness and nutrition.”

In other news from the intersection of tech and healthcare, PYMNTS wrote Monday about the increasing use of digital twins in pharmaceutical trials, especially in high-need areas like neuroscience. This is down to their potential to cut trial durations, lower the reliance on placebo groups and bring life-saving drugs to market faster.

“We’re not just tweaking the system,” Jon Walsh, founder and chief scientific officer at Unlearn, said in a discussion hosted by PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster. “We’re re-architecting it.”

Digital twin technology, Walsh said, can help create a more level playing field in the world of healthcare.

“Not all doctors have access to all of the tools and not all doctors have the same capabilities,” Webster pointed out during the interview.

Walsh agreed. “This is as much a technical problem as it is a social one. Better infrastructure, better use of medical records, better education for doctors. It’s very dangerous to build tools that doctors can’t understand and can’t trust.”