BP monitoring with Galaxy Watch could help Parkinson’s disease patients: Study

Samsung Health Monitor app which is available only at the Samsung Galaxy app store.

A new study has found that blood pressure monitoring on Galaxy Watch could help patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD) effectively manage orthostatic hypotension (OH), a form of low blood pressure that happens when standing up from sitting or lying down.

The study titled "Validation of Blood Pressure Measurement Using a Smartwatch in Patients With Parkinson's Disease" has been published in the latest issue of the leading medical journal Frontiers in Neurology.

The research team, led by Dr Jin Whan Cho and Dr Jong Hyeon Ahn at the Samsung Medical Center, compared BP measurements of Galaxy Watch 3 with those of a sphygmomanometer and found that the easy-to-use and portable smartwatch allows PD patients to measure their BP wherever and whenever they need to, and easily track any BP fluctuation.

Each of the 56 patients had their BP measured with both devices three times, with the findings showing that the measurements collected by both devices were comparable.

"Orthostatic hypotension is a common and challenging symptom that affects people living with PD. If we could use a smartwatch to measure patients' BP regularly and detect potential issues at an early stage, it would really help treat and manage PD," said the researchers.

The Galaxy Watch 3, Galaxy Watch Active 2 and the latest Galaxy Watch 4 are equipped with sophisticated sensors that can monitor blood pressure through pulse wave analysis, which is tracked with Heart Rate Monitoring sensors. Users can frequently monitor their BP and other vitals in the Samsung Health Monitor app and share them with medical professionals in a PDF file format during consultations.

The BP monitoring feature on Galaxy Watch is available via the Samsung Health Monitor app which can be downloaded from the Galaxy app store. It is available in Austria, Australia, Brazil, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the UAE, and the UK.