Jonathan S. Geller, BGR:
According to our source, Apple’s sights are now set on the epidemic of diabetes, and the company plans to introduce a game-changing glucose monitoring feature in an upcoming Apple Watch. An estimated 30 million people suffer from diabetes in the US alone, according to the American Diabetes Association, so Apple’s efforts could lead to a historic achievement in the world of health and fitness.
And:
Apple also plans to introduce interchangeable “smart watch bands” that add various functionality to the Apple Watch without added complexity, and without increasing the price of the watch itself. This could also mean that the glucose monitoring feature will be implemented as part of a smart band, rather than being built into the watch hardware.
A smart band is a natural evolution of, extension to the Apple Watch. Each Apple Watch includes a diagnostic six pin port, so there’s already a path for data flow between your existing Apple Watch and a new band.
I commented along these lines on Jim’s post yesterday about closing circles. I’m a Type I diabetic, and I like to believe I’m well-controlled. I test my blood sugar on average 9 times a day (that’s this year…I’ve noticed in my data that that figure has crept upwards steadily). I don’t wear a continuous glucose monitor (CGM)…I’ve found them unreliable in their ability to stay attached, and there is a level of alert that you can’t turn off. So more annoyance than anything else.
I also am not sure how well CGMs translate to blood sugar, as they are not measuring that directly, but measuring instead a value in “interstitial fluid” between cells, which has a strong correlation to what your blood sugar WAS about 20 minutes ago (at least, that’s what the technology was the last time I wore one regularly, about 7 years ago). The company that made mine was quick to say that it wasn’t to be used as a substitute for direct blood testing as a determination of actual blood glucose…but it IS valuable for watching trends. Even if you still had to test your blood directly, you at least had a feeling of whether you were rising or falling and how fast.
(DISCLAIMER: I understood that the company that made that CGM is NOT the market leader, and has a lesser reputation than others in that area.)
So…when compared to CGM units (or at least the ones from a few years ago), an Apple Watch or Watch Band sensor has a great advantage: I’m assuming that when it’s done that it won’t be invasive, I won’t have to inject a sensor under the skin which might come out at any time and will decrease in effectiveness anyway. BUT…it will take some doing before I trust a sensor as much as I trust my blood glucose meter, before I make dosing decisions based on what the Watch says. I mean, that’s the holy grail, right? A number I can get at a moment’s notice, with virtually no friction, and that is accurate enough to dose on.
(NOTE: blood glucose meters that you can get over the counter are also not considered exactly accurate, not compared to the equipment at your doctor’s lab. But they’re good enough.)
I am also subsequently curious about data. I believe it is standard for CGM units to record one reading every five minutes. That’s 12 readings an hour, 288 a day, over 100,000 a year. Not that I’d be concerned about storage…each is an integer, and then a time stamp which is just another number. But a user interface for browsing data would be very interesting. Where is it going to be stored? The Health app? I know the Health app isn’t best used as an interface for browsing data, but you can do it. That list of readings (“Show All Data”) is going to get very long very fast! Not that I believe it can’t be done well…I’m just really interested to see how they do it!