Samsung TV / information / DRNOW
REVIEW
DrNow brings doctor visits to the Samsung TV with mixed results.
A telehealth client built for the living-room screen — convenient for older viewers who already use the TV as their primary device, awkward for anyone who expects a phone-grade booking flow.
BY THE APP COMRADE DESK · MAY 11, 2026 · 3 MIN READ
Telehealth on a phone is a solved category in 2026 — Teladoc, Amwell, MDLive, and the major insurer-branded apps have spent a decade refining the booking-to-prescription loop. Telehealth on a TV is the contrarian bet, and DrNow is the Tizen entry making it. The pitch is narrow but real: there are households where the TV is the screen that gets used, the phone is the screen that gets ignored, and a doctor’s face at 55 inches is more useful than the same face at six.
DrNow gets the consultation surface right. The video tile is big, the lighting is better than handheld, Bixby handles the entire booking flow without a remote keyboard, and Bluetooth vitals from a paired phone show up on the TV during the call. For an older parent or grandparent in a household where someone else handles the phone-side setup, this is a credible way to make telehealth actually happen instead of perpetually being meant-to-happen.
The execution gap is what to do after the call. Prescriptions, lab orders, and visit notes all live in the phone app, which means the TV-first user still has to hand a phone over to someone else after every consultation. The clinician roster is thin outside general practice and mental health, and wait times stretch across days for anything specialist. DrNow has identified a real audience that the phone-first incumbents underserve. It has not yet built the full product that audience needs.
Telehealth on a 65-inch screen is a real idea for the right household. DrNow proves the concept without yet polishing it.
FEATURES
DrNow is a Tizen-native telehealth client that puts a video doctor visit on the Samsung TV instead of a phone. Sign in with an account created on the companion mobile app or the web portal, browse available clinicians by specialty (general practice, dermatology, mental health, pediatrics in some regions), pick a slot, and join the consultation through the TV's built-in camera or a USB webcam on sets that lack one.
The on-screen layout splits the panel into a large video tile for the clinician, a smaller self-view, and a sidebar that surfaces vitals if a paired Bluetooth device (blood-pressure cuff, pulse oximeter, glucose meter) is connected through the phone app. Prescriptions and visit summaries push to the linked phone after the call ends — the TV is the call surface, not the records surface.
Tizen-specific behavior: Bixby voice can launch DrNow and start a scheduled visit hands-free, useful for users with limited mobility. The remote's microphone handles the entire booking flow without a keyboard. Sessions are end-to-end encrypted and the app claims HIPAA-aligned handling in the US market; coverage outside the US varies and the in-app clinician roster is region-gated.
Pricing varies by clinician and visit type — most general-practice visits land in the $40–$75 band per session for self-pay, with insurance acceptance announced for several major US carriers. There is no subscription tier; you pay per consult.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
The premise lands. For an older household that already treats the TV as the central screen, a doctor visit on a 55- or 65-inch panel is genuinely easier than squinting at a phone in landscape. The clinician sees a steadier, better-lit frame than they would get from a handheld camera, and the patient sees a face large enough to read. That alone justifies the app for a slice of users who would otherwise skip telehealth.
Booking through Bixby voice is the standout feature. "Hi Bixby, book a DrNow visit for tomorrow morning" actually works, and for users with arthritis or vision issues, that is the difference between using telehealth and not. The pairing flow with a Bluetooth BP cuff is also more thoughtful than expected — readings appear on the TV during the call rather than the clinician having to ask for them verbally.
ROOM TO IMPROVE
The TV is the wrong place to manage records. Prescriptions, visit notes, lab orders, and follow-up scheduling all live in the phone app, which means a TV-first user still has to pick up a phone after every call. That undercuts the core pitch. The app could mirror visit summaries to the TV with a printable QR code or a TV-side PDF viewer; today it does not.
Coverage is thin. Clinician availability in most US states is limited to general-practice and mental-health visits during standard business hours, and the specialist roster (dermatology, pediatrics) lists only a handful of providers per state. Wait times for non-urgent slots routinely run several days. Outside the US, the app installs but the booking screen often returns an empty list. Competing phone-first telehealth services (Teladoc, Amwell, MDLive) carry deeper rosters and faster booking; DrNow's TV-first angle is the differentiator, but only that.
Camera-quality gating is real. Older Samsung sets without a built-in camera require a USB webcam, and the app's compatibility list for those webcams is short. A first-time user can hit the "you need a camera" dialog and have no clear path forward without a separate phone purchase.
CONCLUSION
Install DrNow if the TV is already the household's primary screen and an older or mobility-limited family member needs telehealth without a phone-grade booking flow. Skip it if you are comfortable with the major phone-first telehealth services — their rosters are deeper and their post-visit records UX is more complete. The TV-as-consultation-surface idea is correct, the execution needs another year of clinician partnerships and a real on-TV records view.