Samsung’s newest smartwatch, the Galaxy Watch Active2 is already one of the most feature-laden wearables out there. It’s about to get even better as soon it will have the capability to measure your blood pressure from the device itself. That’s because the Samsung Health Monitor app has finally gotten the clearance from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) in South Korea. It is now recognized as a Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) and can be used as a cuffless blood pressure monitoring application.
As we said, the Galaxy Watch Active2 is already packed with a lot of features like activity tracking, ECG measuring, female health-tracking, heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, etc. The only thing missing was a way to monitor your blood pressure without having to use an external device. Now this will be possible through the Samsung Health Monitor app since it has gotten its clearance already to be used for the cuffless and over-the-counter blood pressure monitoring.
But you will still need a cuff in the beginning of course. You need to calibrate your Galaxy Watch Active2 with a traditional blood pressure monitoring cuff. Once the app has been released, you’ll open the Samsung Blood Pressure Solution and tap calibrate the watch. Fit the cuff on the arm opposite the watch and make sure the watch itself is on your non-dominant wrist. You’ll be given some instructions once calibration is finished, you can measure your blood pressure on your smartwatch anytime without the cuff or any other device.
The smartwatch measures your blood pressure through pulse wave analysis on your Heart Rate monitoring sensors. It is then analyzed with the calibration value and the blood pressure change. For best results, you should calibrate your smartwatch with the traditional cuff every four weeks. Measuring your blood pressure is important to help you make health decisions and decrease the risk of brain, kidney, and heart diseases.
The Samsung Health Monitor app will be available for the Galaxy Watch Active2 by the 3rd quarter of 2020. Future Galaxy Watch devices will also be getting this app and feature.
