“Seoul City aims to empower its citizens to take charge of their health anytime and anywhere through the ‘Wrist Doctor 9988’ initiative.”
Seoul is at the forefront of digital healthcare innovations. “Wrist Doctor 9988” utilizes smartwatches to engage citizens in proactive healthcare. Rising medical expenses, attributed to growing chronic disease cases, have led the Seoul Metropolitan Government to offer personalized health services to its citizens. The program provides smartwatches and apps to collect health data, tailoring services and benefits according to engagement level.
The city recruited 50,000 participants in 2021 and conducted its first pilot project until July, 2022. The result showed the overall increase of healthy lifestyles, with increased steps, loss of weight by overweight and obese participants, and healthier dietary routine such as eating breakfast and reading food labels.
The SMG plans to further strengthen the project in the second phase. For citizens’ continuous health care, additional mental health care and at-home training services are provided through partnering with healthcare startups technology.