The annual event Garmin Health Summit 2026 has just ended in Bangkok (Thailand) with the focus being the Garmin Health Awards 2026 ceremony. The event not only brings together more than 200 international experts but also honors pioneering wearable technology applications in medicine, clinical research and community health care.

On November 3, 2026, at the closing ceremony of the Garmin Health Summit 2026 taking place in Bangkok (Thailand), Garmin officially announced the list of winners of the annual Garmin Health Awards 2026. This is an award to recognize organizations and businesses globally that have effectively applied the Garmin Health Connected Ecosystem (GHCE) ecosystem - including Garmin wearable devices and the Garmin Health API and Garmin Health API platforms. SDK - to improve the quality of healthcare for users.

This year, the organizing committee received 113 entries from 31 countries around the world. Solutions are rigorously evaluated by a panel of judges based on actual benefits to users, ability to scale, creativity, level of innovation, effectiveness of practical implementation and compatibility with Garmin Health's focus areas such as healthcare, research, insurance, employee benefits and physical training.

Sharing at the event, Ms. Susan Lyman - Garmin's vice president of sales and customer marketing - emphasized that data from wearable devices is increasingly playing an essential role in providing personalized feedback and designing specialized health care solutions for each user. According to Ms. Susan Lyman, the participating and award-winning units at this year's Garmin Health Awards have demonstrated impressive vision and pioneering thinking in reshaping many fields from healthcare, research to insurance.

Two high-tech medical solutions win at Garmin Health Awards 2026

Overcoming hundreds of international applications, the two best units were named in two important award categories and received rewards of smart watches and Garmin health monitoring devices with a total value of up to 10,000 USD.

• Expert's Choice category (selected by the expert panel): The award belongs to Montefiore Einstein, a cancer treatment center in the United States. This unit has integrated the Garmin Health Connected Ecosystem ecosystem into research programs monitoring patients being treated with chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy. The study demonstrated the feasibility of using wearable devices to continuously monitor patients' daily activities. Notably, this is also the first research group to demonstrate that data collected from wearable devices before treatment regimens can help doctors early identify patients at risk of difficulties during treatment.
• People's Choice category (participants' choice): The award was given to HeraMED, a listed enterprise in Australia specializing in developing women's health care solutions using artificial intelligence (AI). HeraMED's platform focuses on providing personalized, seamless health care and monitoring services based on real data, accompanying women through many important stages such as pregnancy, postpartum, premenopause, menopause as well as supporting the control of chronic diseases.

A panorama of the future of preventive medicine and biological data

In addition to the awards ceremony, the Garmin Health Summit 2026 conference in Bangkok is also a forum connecting more than 200 business leaders and international experts in the healthcare, insurance, employee benefits, sports and health technology industries. Before coming to Bangkok, this annual event was held in many major cities around the world such as New York, Prague and Singapore.

Within the framework of the conference, Garmin's senior leaders and a team of international scholars published many notable professional reports:

• Market trends and longevity index: Mr. Jörn Watzke - senior director of global sales at Garmin Health - outlined the unit's growth picture in the Asian and global markets, and pointed out the strong shift of industries in exploiting data from wearable devices. Along with that, Mr. Scott Burgett - senior technical director of Garmin Health - analyzed how to apply biological indicators on Garmin devices to evaluate healthy life quality and longevity, opening up new directions for preventive medicine.
• Physical and mental research in harsh environments: Professor Francesco Pagnini presented initial results from collaborative projects with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Navy. By analyzing data from Garmin wearable devices, the research team has clarified the correlation between physical health and mental state of people when working in specific environments with high pressure intensity.
• Expanding medical access with AI: The highlight of the second working day was the presentation with the topic "From hospital to everywhere: reshaping healthcare with AI and technology" by Dr. Sangita Reddy - co-CEO of Apollo Hospitals system. The speech highlighted the role of AI and digital technology in eliminating spatial barriers, bringing medical care closer to underserved communities.

Diverse practical application models from wearable device data

The conference also recorded many practical reports demonstrating the flexible application of popular wearable device data into in-depth research and labor safety:

• Monitoring thyroid disease through sleep: Mr. Jaemy Park from the Thyroscope unit introduced the method of using heart rate index during sleep as a digital biomarker to monitor and support effective treatment for patients with thyroid disease.
• Pregnancy and pediatric health care: Two doctors, Amy Elliott and Christa Friedrich, representing Avera Research Institute, shared their experience integrating Garmin wearable devices into the NIH ECHO research program to closely monitor the mother's health during pregnancy as well as the developmental stages of children.
• Traffic and labor safety management: In the transportation field, Mr. Dylan Hartley from WHG Solutions presented a solution to exploit Garmin device data to identify and manage fatigue of truck drivers, thereby minimizing risks and improving operational safety.

Through the Garmin Health API and SDK platform of the Garmin Health Connected Ecosystem, partner organizations can access real-time or historical health data with flexible granularity and meet strict security standards.

Although Garmin wearables are designed for general users and not specialized medical devices, the trusted data source from this ecosystem is still creating a solid foundation for third-party partners in the healthcare, research, insurance, corporate welfare and defense industries to successfully develop breakthrough public health care solutions.