Samsung's Galaxy Watches Could Alert Users Before They Faint
Key takeaways
- On Thursday, Samsung released new third-party research detailing how its Galaxy Watches may help detect signs associated with fainting episodes.
- Samsung teamed up with the Chung-Ang University Gwangmyeong Hospital of Korea to evaluate over 130 patients struggling with fainting problems.
- The watch predicted fainting episodes with meaningful accuracy several minutes before they happened.
Smartwatches and fitness trackers often tout expansive health-monitoring capabilities, though some features can create more anxiety than reassurance without independent validation, as CNET senior editor Anna Gragert previously reported. On Thursday, Samsung released new third-party research detailing how its Galaxy Watches may help detect signs associated with fainting episodes.
Samsung teamed up with the Chung-Ang University Gwangmyeong Hospital of Korea to evaluate over 130 patients struggling with fainting problems. The study included wearing a Samsung Galaxy 6 smartwatch with its photoplethysmography sensor that measures to collect heart rate variability data. (A photoplethysmography sensor uses light to measure changes in blood flow beneath the skin.) That data was then analyzed using an AI algorithm.
The watch predicted fainting episodes with meaningful accuracy several minutes before they happened. It showed 84.6% accuracy in these predications, at a clinically meaningful sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 64%. In other words, that's enough to show that the smartwatch helped. Note that this study didn't have any peer reviews at the time we read it, which would add important confirmation to these results.