[Become an Insurance Insider] Smart Insurance Health Management App That Plans Diets and Recommends Exercises...

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[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Hyung-gil] The healthcare competition, regarded as a new future business in the insurance industry, is heating up. Financial authorities are preparing regulatory improvement plans to support healthcare, and insurance companies are each launching new services to prepare for market dominance.

At the Financial Industry Future Outlook and Competition Evaluation meeting held by the Financial Services Commission on the 25th, evaluators predicted that due to aging, low interest rates, and low growth, the development of elderly health management products and strengthening of asset management functions will become the core of the insurance industry.

Accordingly, the authorities plan to announce measures to create future growth engines for the insurance industry, including healthcare, after additional meetings by January next year.

Currently, some domestic insurance companies have already developed and are providing healthcare services or products.

MetLife Life Insurance launched the '360Health App 2.0,' a mobile health management application with artificial intelligence (AI) functions that enable not only diet but also exercise management.

Using AI, it offers personalized diet and exercise recommendations. When a user photographs food, the AI instantly analyzes calories and nutritional content and evaluates whether the diet is appropriate based on the individual's health status. The photographed diet information is continuously recorded and stored by AI, reflected in weekly and monthly AI health reports, and coaching is provided to improve eating habits, including personalized diet recommendations.

It also provides solutions to cultivate better exercise habits. The AI analyzes the user's exercise frequency, duration, intensity, and type to identify deficiencies and excesses. Based on this, it recommends optimal aerobic and strength exercises for each individual and informs effective exercise methods from professional trainers.

Shinhan Life Insurance operates the Health Note service, which allows users to search and utilize health information anytime and anywhere. Health Note provides customized disease information according to the customer's gender and age. For example, if a man in his 40s searches for diabetes, he can easily obtain comprehensive information on the average medical costs for men in their 40s, symptoms of diabetes, and complications.

AIA Life's health habit management app, AIA Vitality, motivates people to form healthy lifestyle habits by offering insurance premium discounts and everyday benefits. Recently, AIA Vitality revamped its service and switched to a paid membership (5,500 KRW per month).

AIA Life offers a 10% upfront discount on insurance premiums to Vitality paid members and expands the discount up to 20% depending on the degree of healthy habit practice.

Hanwha Life's non-face-to-face health management app 'Hello' provides health management services and content based on users' health checkup information and daily life data (activity, nutrition, sleep).

When users verify their identity with a certified certificate, they can view 10 years of past health checkup information at a glance and receive an analysis of their biological age, which converts their health level into an age equivalent.

Kyobo Life Insurance's integrated customer service app 'Kare' offers personalized services such as suggesting target step counts based on customers' physical information like gender, age, height, and weight. When goals are achieved, congratulatory stamps are issued and can be converted into points to be used in various events conducted by Kare.

Additionally, through algorithms, it predicts the risk of more than 10 diseases including health status, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, cancer, and dementia, and suggests personalized health management plans. It analyzes health checkup data from the past 10 years to report which test results are risky and the trends of changes.