SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM) announced that Health Connect, a joint venture between SK Telecom and Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH), today commercialized an ICT-based personalized health management service named Health-On.

Designed to help people lead healthier lives by focusing on prevention of diseases through proper diet and exercise, Health-On offers integrated health care service utilizing the accurate analysis of the user’s current state of health. Based on the results of user’s medical check-up and physical fitness test, Health-On creates optimal health management solution – including weight loss goals and exercise plans - through consultations with health/nutrition/fitness professionals; offers constant advice and motivation to enable the user to achieve the goals by easily keeping track of their lifestyle patterns including calorie intake and exercise; measures progress and effects on a regular basis; and allows users to receive on/offline health consultation from health professionals at SNUH.

Health-On uses smartphone application and an activity tracker for improved user convenience and maximized results. The smartphone application allows users to store information on calorie intake and amount of physical activities/workout, set exercise goals, view recommended exercise routines, check daily/weekly progress, and use SNS feature to compare their progress and achievements with those of others. And the activity tracker, which can be worn on around the wrist or clipped on to a belt, can be used to record step counts and calculate calories burned by exercise.

Health Connect will first offer Health-On to corporate customers. Constant management of employees’ health supported by Health-On is expected to not only improve the health and well-being of employees but also enhance the level of corporate productivity. The service is first applied to SK Telecom’s 1,500 employees stationed at the company’s headquarters with further plans to expand the service to all employees. Given the Korean companies’ growing interest in the health and well-being of their employees, Health-On is expected to become a popular service in the corporate sector. In addition, Health-On will be offered to individual customers in the second half of this year.

In fact, the effects of Health-On has been already proven through a service trial run that took place in the second half of 2012 with the participation of 30 SK Telecom employees with a BMI of 25kg/m2. During the three-month trial period, participants saw their BMI, weight and body fat decrease by an average of 3.0kg/m2, 8.8kg and 6.3kg, respectively. Moreover, they expe-rienced significant improvements in specific health related figures such as waist circumference (-10.8cm), total cholesterol (-26.9mg/dl) and trigliceride (-91.5mg/dl), and also reported en-hanced concentration, energy levels, interaction with co-workers and stress management.

"The commercialization of Health-On represents a shift towards prevention and management-centered health care as well as the full-fledged opening of an era of ICT-powered smart well-ness services," said Lee Chul-hee, CEO of Health Connect (President of Boramae Medical Center). "Health Connect will expand Health-On to individual customers to make sure that the service can be used by anyone who wish to enhance their health and well-being."

Yook Tae-sun, Executive Vice President and Head of New Business Division at SK Telecom said, "From 2015, Health Connect aims to offer a new type of disease management service for patients with chronic illnesses by combining SK Telecom’s cutting-edge ICT and SNUH’s world-class medical professionals. To this end, the company will soon launch a trial service for management of chronic illnesses that will bring innovative changes to the industry."