Samsung, Kaiser Permanente
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. revealed in August the results of a home-based cardiac rehabilitation initiative, developed in collaboration with Kaiser Permanente.
The initiative paired commercially available Samsung smartwatches that have built-in optical sensors – Gear S3 and Galaxy Watch – with Samsung’s HeartWise application to track each patient’s daily heart rate and activities. A report of patients’ activities was logged directly to their physician’s dashboard used to set exercise goals and monitor patients’ progress.
Samsung says that the program, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed significant improvements over traditional cardiac rehabilitation programs. While the U.S. national average hospital readmission rate for these conditions is approximately 10% to 15%, participating program patients experienced a readmission rate of less than 2%. The program achieved an 87 percent patient completion rate.
Kaiser Permanente reportedly is evaluating expanding the program beyond Southern California.
Fitbit Premium
San Francisco-based Fitbit announced in August the launch of Fitbit Premium, a paid subscription service in the Fitbit app that uses a person’s unique data to deliver what the company says is a “personalized experience, with actionable guidance and coaching to help you achieve your health and fitness goals.”
At launch, Premium included nine guided health and fitness programs – Intro to Healthy Habits, Get More Zzz’s, Habits for Restful Sleep, Get Active, Beginner Running, Run Training, Understand Calories, Kick Your Sugar Habit and Kick Your Salt Habit. Programs are said to include actionable coaching, daily tips and tricks, structured workout plans, relaxation tools, recipe suggestions and educational content. Fitbit says it will launch additional activity, sleep and nutrition programs by the end of the year. Premium will be available to any Fitbit user and to Fitbit Health Solutions customers through Fitbit Care.