Samsung’s $50 Million Digital Health Investment Fund

Fred Pennic over at HIT Consultant posted a great story about the new $50 million digital health initiative coming out of Samsung. Here’s a portion of Fred’s article about the announcement:

The new initiative will utilize a new health open reference design platform tailored to take advantage of the latest sensors, behavioral algorithms, battery technologies and displays.
To aggressively support this initiative, Samsung has also announced a $50 million investment fund dedicated to innovative start-ups and technologies in the digital health space. The goal of the fund is to stimulate creative new approaches to digital health and Samsung’s open platforms.

I’ve long been interested in the role that cell phone companies will play in the digital health space and specifically in the health sensors space. There’s always been a bit of a problem for me with the various health sensors out there in the market today. I just don’t care enough about them to wear one every day. The watch comes closest to a natural product that I could see myself wearing it regularly, but the clip on products just aren’t something I want to do every day. I have too many other things to think about.

Of course, you wouldn’t catch most of us without our cell phones on us. This is why it’s always made sense why the cell phone would be the ultimate health tracker. It doesn’t require a habit change by the end user.

Until this cell phone-health sensor vision comes to fruition we’re going to have to limp along with these other wearable technologies and no doubt Samsung wants to be a major player in that space so they know which ones are worth integrating into their cell phones down the road. With that in mind, $50 million seems like a small investment for them to make in the space.

I personally see this $50 million fund as a small down payment by Samsung on what will likely become a much larger investment for them in healthcare.

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May 29, 2014 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 6000 articles with John having written over 3000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 14 million times. John also manages Healthcare IT Central and Healthcare IT Today, the leading career Health IT job board and blog. John launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: and and .

Filed Under: Android  Fitness Trackers  Health Care  Healthcare IT  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Smart Phones  Wearables
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Galaxy Smartwatch Preview Video

It looks like it’s Smartwatch week here at Smart Phone healthcare. Plus, it will continue tomorrow with another interesting Smartwatch twist. However, for those interested in the recently announced Galaxy Gear Smartwatch, you’re going to love the following video demo of the Samsung Galaxy Gear.

When it comes to mobile health, the built in pedometer is the obvious one. However, don’t underestimate the power of messages coming to you right on the wrist. Not to mention the S Voice (Siri like functionality) that’s built into the smartwatch.

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September 10, 2013 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 6000 articles with John having written over 3000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 14 million times. John also manages Healthcare IT Central and Healthcare IT Today, the leading career Health IT job board and blog. John launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: and and .

Filed Under: Android  Health Care  Healthcare IT  Medical Devices  mHealth  Mobile Health Care
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Smart Watch Announcements – Qualcomm’s Toq and Samsung’s Galaxy Gear

We posted about the rumored iWatch from Apple a while back, but today Apple was beat to the punch with both Qualcomm and Samsung announcing smart watches today. The smart watch movement could mean a lot for mobile health.

Qualcomm’s smart watch offering is called the Toq and isn’t planned to go on sell until the middle of next month. Plus, Qualcomm calls it a technology demonstration instead of a commercial endeavor. That means they’re looking to partners to carry this torch. Qualcomm isn’t turning into a consumer electronics company. Here’s AllThingsD’s description of the smart watch:

It features several different watch faces, including one that matches the time with upcoming calendar appointments, and another that displays both time and weather information. The Toq can also control the phone’s music player, as well as display text messages and send one of several preset replies. Clearly designed as a companion to a smartphone, the watch settings are controlled from an app that runs on an Android smartphone.

Watch owners can also get other types of Android notifications that would normally flash on their phone screen. Users can decide which apps’ notifications are shown on the watch. Qualcomm will also make available a developer tool kit that will let interested companies create their own “applets” for the watch.

At the same time, the combination of the Mirasol display and other power-saving features means that the device can be always-on (there’s no on-off switch) and still get several days of use between charges.

I think this is best described as a second screen for your smart phone. Although, it’s a second screen that’s always on thanks to the Qualcomm Mirasol display technology.

The Samsung Galaxy Gear smart watch will launch on Sept 25 in more than 140 countries and available worldwide in October. Here’s AllThingsD’s description of the device:

Designed to be a smartphone companion, the Android-based wearable features a stainless steel frame with a 1.63-inch, 320 by 320 pixel touchscreen and rubber straps that come in six different colors, including orange, yellow and white.

For now it appears that the Galaxy Gear is designed to work only with the Galaxy Note 3 and the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition tablet, which were also announced. Once connected via Bluetooth, the watch can alert you to incoming texts and emails. A feature called “Smart Relay” also mirrors what you’re seeing on your smartphone to the watch.

With a built-in mic, you can make and receive phone calls and draft messages, create calendar appointments and more using Samsung’s S Voice command system. The watch’s strap also has an integrated 1.9-megapixel camera. But before you get excited about living out your dream as a spy, the camera makes a shutter noise that can’t be disabled.

That’s a huge problem that the Galaxy Gear only works with the latest Galaxy Note products. I imagine this will change once Samsung is able to push out an update to the Samsung S3 and S4′s. If they can’t do that, then this device is really going to suffer. The battery life on the device is estimated at 25 hours and will launch with more than 70 compatible apps including the RunKeeper app.

The most exciting part of both of these announcements is that we’re just getting started with the Smart Watch technology. I’m not sure how this is going to evolve, but I love the always on feature of a smart watch. I also love the idea of it being a second screen. Plus, with an accelerometer on the watch and likely more bio sensors to come, there’s a great opportunity for mobile health apps.

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September 4, 2013 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 6000 articles with John having written over 3000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 14 million times. John also manages Healthcare IT Central and Healthcare IT Today, the leading career Health IT job board and blog. John launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: and and .

Filed Under: Healthcare IT  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Smart Watch  Wearables
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S Health Gives Comprehensive View of Health

So I just traded in my Nexus S for a Galaxy S2. I know, I know — the Galaxy S4 just came out, so I’m a little bit behind the game. Still, it’s a good upgrade, and I’m loving having it. However, when someone mentioned on Facebook how much they loved S Health, a feature on the new Galaxy S4, I had to check it out. And, of course, it made me a little bit jealous that my older Galaxy didn’t appear to have it.

So what is S Health? Well, it was launched last year, and the newest version was released with the S4, optimized to work with some of the senors that are integrated into the S4. While the S Health has many similar features to other devices on the market, such as FitBit — including a built-in pedometer and diet tracking — it also has some features that are rather unique.

The feature that stood out most to me was the Comfort Level. It tells you what your comfort level is, by pulling in the ambient temperature and humidity of the room you are in. While I am not totally sure what the point of knowing this would be, it’s cool that it can do that. You can track all your progress in a variety of different charts, and sync it with third-party blood pressure and glucose monitors. All of these things combined seem like they would give you a pretty comprehensive look at your health profile.

Overall, I wouldn’t buy the Galaxy S4 just for this feature, but it is a nice added bonus. If you already have a smart phone that works well for you, I’d go with a less expensive option for a wearable a device, rather than shelling out the cash for this. It also sounds like they have some more things in the work for S Health, so be on the lookout for that in the future!

Of all the wearable devices out there, do you have a favorite?

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June 17, 2013 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: Android  Health Care  Healthcare Social Media  Medical Devices  mHealth  Mobile Health Care
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Fujitsu Smartphone to Measure Vitals

There’s a revolution in health sensors that are coming to the smartphone world. This was first seen when the Samsung phones decided to include sensors to measure the temperature and humidity of your location.

It looks like Fujitsu is ready to launch a new smartphone that measures your vital health information using you smartphone camera. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

[Fujitsu] have just announced plan to begin including health tracking technology into their future smartphones. This tech would be able to figure out your heart rate just by looking at your face. Basically, you stick your mug in front of the camera and the phone does the rest. How in the world does it do this? Subtle changes in facial blood flow are not detectable by the human eye but are able to be seen by computers. Lo and behold, smartphones are actually computers.

I first saw this technology in action at the Connected Health Summit in Boston a couple years ago. It’s really amazing monitoring technology using just your smartphone camera. It’s a beautiful thing since you don’t need a wristband, armband, clip on, etc. You just need the smartphone that you’re carrying around already.

I wonder if this monitoring technology is just an app that can work with almost any hardware or if it will need a specific camera to work right. It would be great if it’s just an app, because then this could work for any smartphone.

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April 10, 2013 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 6000 articles with John having written over 3000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 14 million times. John also manages Healthcare IT Central and Healthcare IT Today, the leading career Health IT job board and blog. John launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: and and .

Filed Under: Healthcare IT  Medical Devices  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Smart Phones
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New Verizon Casio Android Smartphone Ruggedized for Hospital Use

Most people are probably a lot like me in that they are pretty rough on their cell phones.  If you are looking for a phone that can handle the abuse that you generally give your phone, Casio has come out with a new phone in conjuction with Verizon Wireless that completely blows my mind.

The G’zOne Commando conforms to the rugged MIL-STD-810G military standard for durability as it was designed for people who work in hospitals, construction, and other more trying environments, but that is just the start.

It has 1mm-thick tough glass and bumper edges allowing the unit to withstand some drops.  It can also survive temperature extremes ranging from 185 degrees to -13 degrees Fahrenheit for up to 96 hours.  Obviously a little more extreme than what most people have to endure on a regular basis, but it is nice to know you will never even get close to hurting it.

The device can also handle environmental conditions such as heavy dust, salt fog, solar radiation, shock, humidity, vibrations, and liquid immersion.  So essentially what they are saying is it can handle just about anything you could even think to throw at it.

Just in case you actually intend to use your phone and not just abuse it, there are a ton of great features it has in terms of operability.

Security features provided through Microsoft’s EAS (Exchange ActiveSync) allow users to encrypt data in transit, remotely wipe information, enable device inactivity timeout and set password complexity.  It also allows workers to access inventories and capture signatures.

The device runs the Android 2.2 Froyo operating system and operates on Verizon’s 3G/EV-DO network. Much like other new smart phones, it serves as a WiFi hotspot for other devices, but it does not function on the 4G network at this point.

It has eight different operating modes, including Earth Compass and Walking Counter, which tracks steps, distance and energy consumption.  Trip Memory allows users to keep track of outdoor activities and share the information with contacts on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

The unit weighs 5.4 ounces, measures 5.1 by 2.6 by 0.6 inches and features a 3.6-inch WVGA display. It also features XT9 and T9 trace input for efficient typing.  If you have never used it before it does take a little time to get used to it, but is pretty cool once you do.

In addition, G’zGear software allows users to navigate outdoor environments, while using Triple Sensor technology to keep track of direction, acceleration and temperature.

The G’zOne also incorporates a 5-megapixel camera with auto-focus, LED flash and video capture. Plus, it comes with 1GB of flash memory and 512MB of RAM.

The G’zOne Commando retails at about the same price as other comparable smart phones, and it is available for purchase as of last week.

Other leaders in rugged mobile devices for harsh environments include Motorola, Motion Computing, and Samsung.

If you are looking for a tablet that can take a little more of a beating than the iPad, Motion Computing has announced its rugged CL900 tablet for verticals such as health care and retail, and T-Mobile carries the rugged Motorola Defy Android smartphone on its network. The Defy’s 3.7-inch touch screen is resistant to water and scratches.

Meanwhile, Samsung’s line of rugged Rugby phones on AT&T are also marketed to verticals in tough working environments. The Rugby II is a 3G two-way push-to-talk device suitable for extreme temperatures, shock and vibration.

Obviously this phone, if you are okay with only calling it a phone, is a lot more than most people need, but if you have ever had to deal with a shattered screen, water damage, or any of the other damage we do to our phones, it may be worth it to buy something that can handle a little more than most phones.

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May 8, 2011 I Written By

Filed Under: Android  Health Care  Healthcare IT  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Smart Phones  Tablets
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