Samsung Electronics outlines connected care vision at London health forum

Samsung Electronics presented a new vision for digital health at a forum in London, aiming to transform medical care from reactive treatment into proactive prevention through artificial intelligence and strategic partnerships. The company hosted the event ahead of its Galaxy Unpacked 2026 showcase to discuss how technology can bridge the gap between health data collection and actual lifestyle changes.

Park Heon-soo, head of the digital health team at Samsung's MX business unit, opened the discussion by highlighting a paradox where chronic diseases continue to rise despite billions of people tracking sleep, stress and heart rates daily. He argued that more data has not automatically led to better health outcomes because of two critical gaps: the disconnect between discovering health signals and connecting them to medical care, and the difficulty individuals face in sustaining healthy habits in their daily lives.

"We are living in an era where we measure more health data than any other time in human history, yet chronic diseases keep increasing," Park said. "Simply having more data does not lead to better health."

Park explained that Samsung is uniquely positioned to close these gaps by leveraging its ecosystem of wearables, smartphones and connected devices to provide context-aware insights rather than just raw numbers. The strategy involves capturing the precise moments when users make health decisions and offering tailored support to encourage positive behavioral changes.

To address nutrition, the company highlighted the integration of Samsung Health with the Samsung Food platform, which analyzes user dietary records and preferences to recommend personalized recipes. Kartik Poria, head of Samsung Food, noted that the goal is to make healthy choices easier without adding burden to the user.

In the fitness sector, Samsung Health offers subscriptions to premium programs from iFIT, allowing users to follow expert-led workouts while their Galaxy Watch tracks vital signs. Kevin Duffy, CEO of iFIT, stated that combining professional exercise planning with integrated health insights would help more people turn physical activity into a meaningful daily habit.

Building clinical trust remains a central pillar of the initiative, with Samsung collaborating with institutions such as the UK National Health Service and Spain's San Cecilio University Hospital to validate its technologies. Rohit Ail, head of the Technology Incubation Lab at Samsung's UK research center, emphasized that user data ownership and protection are foundational to this trust, citing compliance with European privacy regulations and the use of Samsung Knox security.

On the technical front, Otávio Penatti, who leads health AI research at Samsung's Brazil lab, described efforts to develop foundation models capable of interpreting complex biological signals like electrocardiograms and photoplethysmography as a unified language. This approach aims to predict early signs of disease and deliver continuous, personalized health guidance based on patterns detected in everyday wearable data.