LONDON — Samsung Electronics officially outlined its new vision for the future of digital health at the Galaxy Unpacked 2026 event in London. Through the "Connected Care" initiative, the South Korean technology giant aims to shift the healthcare paradigm from being reactive after illness to being more preventive, personalized, and closely integrated with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and cross-industry collaboration.
In a forum titled "Rewriting the Rules of Preventive Health" hosted by Dr. Hon Pak, Senior Vice President and Head of the Digital Health Team, Mobile eXperience (MX) Business at Samsung Electronics, experts from nutrition, fitness, clinical research, and AI sectors gathered. They discussed concrete steps to bridge the gap between the theoretical understanding of a healthy lifestyle and its actual implementation in people's daily lives.
Dr. Pak highlighted a contradictory phenomenon in the modern era. Although billions of people can now easily track biometric data such as sleep quality and heart rate through smart devices, global chronic disease rates continue to climb. According to him, the abundance of health data does not automatically correlate with an improvement in an individual's quality of life.
Samsung identified two main challenges or "missing miles" in this transition to preventive health. First, the lack of continuous monitoring outside of medical facilities that is directly connected to doctors. Second, the difficulty of independently maintaining consistent healthy behaviors amidst busy daily schedules after a diagnosis or medical recommendation is given.
Through an integrated ecosystem that includes wearable devices and Galaxy smartphones, Samsung positions itself as a facilitator that contextualizes this biometric data. Samsung combines physical data with the user's daily conditions to provide the right nudge at the most relevant time, supported by AI technology as the primary bridge.
In the nutrition sector, the collaboration between Samsung Health and Samsung Food, presented by Kartik Poria, focuses on providing personalized food recommendations. By measuring body indicators such as antioxidant index and AGEs, this system is designed using behavioral change science so that healthy food choices become the most practical and accessible options for busy users.
Meanwhile, Kevin Duffy, CEO of iFIT, explained the integration of premium fitness workout programs into the Samsung Health platform. Through the Galaxy Watch, which monitors metrics in real time, users will receive a visualization of their fitness through a single unified score called the Fitness Index, which will later be supported by an AI health assistant to provide precise workout guidance.
Clinical trust and data security are also crucial pillars. Rohit Ail from Samsung R&D Institute UK (SRUK) explained that they are actively conducting scientific validation with leading medical institutions in Europe to detect cardiovascular risks and monitor the condition of young cancer survivors. User data security is guaranteed through a three-layer protection including Samsung Knox and compliance with international privacy regulations.
On the advanced AI front, Otávio Penatti from Samsung R&D Institute Brazil introduced a "health foundation model". This self-supervised learning-based artificial intelligence technology is capable of translating biological body signals (such as ECG, PPG, and ACC) like natural human language to generate far more accurate, dynamic, and sustainable preventive health predictions.
