Samsung Health: Around the world in 13 Days
This month, I had the honor of joining the world’s leaders in healthcare at not one, but two major events. From the cross-section of academics at the Pope’s “United to Cure” symposium in Vatican City, to the industry innovators at HLTH in Las Vegas, Nevada, I’ve had the privilege of trading ideas with those shaping the future of medicine.
The irony of speaking at the Vatican City and then Las Vegas, one place known for its holiness and the other place known for, well, the opposite, less than two weeks from each other was not lost, but both events focused on the power of healing. This is an area where Samsung has created applications using a variety of technologies — including virtual reality (VR), implantable devices, and emerging tech — to advance healing for patients and greatly assist caregivers, and healthcare providers.
VR, in particular, has proven to have a multitude of uses in the field of medicine, including for those with low vision due to macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, glaucoma, and other conditions. These patients can have a difficult time living independently, maintaining employment, accessing information, etc; but with the help of a specialized VR program the goggles can help improve vision abnormalities and, in many cases, help them see again.
VR has also been used to help the paralyzed regain neurologic function. In one recent study, eight individuals with chronic paraplegia (paralyzed for 3 to 13 years) due to spinal cord injury engaged in long-term training with VR and an exoskeleton. At the end of one year, all eight patients had increased somatic sensation — feelings of touch, pressure, cold, warmth, and pain — as well as voluntary motor control. Over time, classification for all eight was upgraded from chronic to incomplete paraplegia, a remarkable, and heartening advancement.
As we’ve shared previously, VR has presented a reassuring non-narcotic alternative in the field of pain management. In a recently completed study at Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, patients who used the VR application experienced a 52% reduction in pain, with a trend towards lower narcotic use in those with a higher baseline level of pain. Samsung is now actively working with several sites across the United States to apply VR as a non-narcotic alternative to help battle the opioid epidemic.
But we can and must do more. At Samsung, we have set for ourselves a mission to improve one billion lives by 2020. We intend to do this by leveraging the Samsung Health platform (with currently over 260 million users) and building consumer-friendly, healthcare-relevant services on the platform. Today, we have Ask An Expert, a program developed in partnership with telemedicine company American Well, in which consumers and patients can reach a physician anytime and anywhere.
Another area of focus for Samsung in the telehealth space is chronic disease management. Through a partnership with Welldoc, Samsung has launched the Diabetes Wellness Prevention (DWP) service, which allows diabetic patients to receive digital health coaching on their smart phones and keep focused on healthy living.
Samsung is also working closely with leading medical device companies to “consumerize” the healthcare experience and improve quality of life for patients requiring more invasive treatments, such as an implantable device. Diabetic patients who requiring an implantable insulin pump or an implanted neurostimulator will no longer need to pull out a large bulky device that calls attention to their condition. Instead, data from the device can be viewed discreetly on a smart phone or smart watch. Eventually, implantable devices will even be managed directly on the smart phone.
To achieve this vision, the smart phone will need to have secure HIPAA-compliant capabilities in accordance with FDA standards. Fortunately, Samsung Knox was rated by Gartner as the most secure platform on any mobile device. With our ability to customize the mobile device and work alongside medical device companies to navigate these new solutions through FDA’s review and approval processes, Samsung is prepared to go “all-in” to help patients with chronic disease.
The trendline of integrating technology into healthcare — in the U.S. and around the world — is dramatically increasing, especially with the push towards patient-centric care outside the hospital and the emergence of digital and telehealth. Between our consumer-focused tech and products that patients use every day, and our drive to improve lives for people everywhere, Samsung is in the perfect situation to make the most of this growing trend, and in the process improve the health and well-being for people across the globe.
