Samsung, the South Korean electronics giant, has made a significant move into the health sector by acquiring Xealth, a Seattle-based company that helps healthcare professionals integrate digital health technology (DHT) into their practices. This acquisition marks a substantial expansion of Samsung’s ambitions in the health category, building on its strong presence in sensor technologies and wearables.
Samsung’s presence in the wearables market, where it is the second-largest player behind Apple, has already led to research partnerships with pharmaceutical companies like Bayer, focusing on areas such as sleep disturbances. The company has also been working on deploying artificial intelligence to manage the vast amounts of often fragmented health and wellness data.
Xealth’s primary business revolves around creating an ecosystem that enables doctors to seamlessly integrate DHT into their daily practices. The company works with over 70 DHT providers and has established a network of more than 500 hospitals across the US, offering real-time monitoring and patient engagement through its apps.
The acquisition is expected to advance Samsung’s “transformation into a connected care platform that bridges wellness and medical care, bringing a seamless and holistic approach to preventative care to as many people as possible,” according to the company. Samsung has been building its health platform, Samsung Health, which features blood oxygen and blood pressure measurement, body mass composition analysis, ECG technology to monitor heart function, calorie intake measurement, fitness tracking, and detection of sleep apnea.
On the AI front, Samsung has collaborated with academics at the University of Georgia to develop Energy Score, an app that works with wearables to monitor health indicators such as activity levels, sleep quality, heart rate during sleep, and heart rate variability during sleep. Future developments may include nutrition tracking, mental health monitoring, and mobile device usage patterns.
Other projects in the pipeline include the development of nutrition coaching for use with continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) technology for individuals living with diabetes, as well as non-invasive technologies for tracking blood glucose levels.
“Samsung aims to improve the health of everyone through our extensive platform combining Samsung’s innovative technologies and open collaboration with industry leaders,” said TM Roh, president and acting head of Samsung’s device experience (DX) division. “We believe the acquisition of Xealth, with its accumulated expertise and extensive healthcare network, will be an anchor to accelerate Samsung’s efforts to support health systems and digital health partners through a truly connected care.”
The acquisition is expected to be completed before the end of the year, although financial terms have not been disclosed.
