Question for AC Editors about Blood Pressure on Galaxy Watches

[Starfleet Captain]

So, its been about 2 years now since the release of the Galaxy Watch Active 2. At the time of release, Blood Pressure and ECG capabilities were promised for the Watch. It took a year for ECG to come to the US versions of the watches. Since the release of the galaxy Watch 2 Active, two additional releases have been done by Samsung: The Galaxy Watch 3 - which promised this capability - and now, the Galaxy Watch 4/ Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. I understand that FDA Approval seems to be the holdup. Has anyone at Android Central done any investigative reporting as to what the holdup is for BP monitoring? After all, its been 2 years! The FDA granted approval for ECG monitoring one year after the GWA2 release - which nearly coincided with their approval of the ECG capability of the Apple Watch Series 6. This was done shortly after the the release of Apple's Series 6 watch. I suspect something foul here. The FDA sat on Samsung's approval for a year, while waiting for Apple to catch up (OK, I don't know that this is the reason for doing so, but I suspect it) and then gave its approval for both devices. So does Apple need to add a blood pressure reading capability to its devices in order for Samsung's devices to get approval? Could the FDA be playing favorites with Apple since its an American company? Is this something that AC can inquire about with more rigor than accepting the standard cookie cutter response from Samsung? What is the holdup? Is it the software? Is it the hardware? is the accuracy too far off - and if so, what accuracy benchmarks are they looking for? Is this a problem with the standard warning/caveat that the watch gives before taking the reading? Is this an issue about money? Similar organizations around the world from the UK to South Korea have given their blessing. Why not the US?

 

[Talderon]

The US is notorious for their bureaucratic red tape and slowness of getting things done. I would not hold your breath for it anytime really soon, but maybe if there is pressure from the consumers, it may get some traction, but I am not sure how to go about applying that pressure.

 

[Starfleet Captain]

The US is notorious for their bureaucratic red tape and slowness of getting things done. I would not hold your breath for it anytime really soon, but maybe if there is pressure from the consumers, it may get some traction, but I am not sure how to go about applying that pressure.

This, I could buy if Apple hadn't had their ECG capabilities approved for their watch at the time of release. Sure, you could speculate that maybe Apple had their device sitting in an FDA office for over a year prior to its release, but I doubt it. It would be nice if Samsung were upfront about what is causing this delay - which has been 2 years now. It would also be nice if the Tech journalism scene would use their resources to either pry the truth out of Samsung and/or the FDA or to investigate what that truth most likely is - like what is the specific problem with getting the approval? Many people purchased these devices expecting this function.