On tech front, promises and more promises
So far, there have been more promises than actual products.
If you don’t look too closely at the website of a device called GlucoWise, you might assume a noninvasive glucose monitor already exists. Under a photo of a smiling woman, the site promises a “100% pain-free device that makes traditional blood sampling a thing of the past.”
The “simple yet highly reliable” device, which looks a bit like a large clip for a potato chip bag, promises to measure glucose through high-frequency radio waves that penetrate thin body tissue in the earlobe or the area between the thumb and forefinger.
But the GlucoWise device is neither approved nor available, and the company’s predictions that it would take preorders by late 2016 didn’t come true.
Another product called SugarBEAT missed its planned 2016 release and now hopes to be available in the Britain later this year. It promises to measure glucose levels every 5 minutes via a small disposable patch that draws interstitial fluid from the skin.
Meanwhile, Apple has enlisted biomedical engineers to work on a secret project to measure glucose continuously and noninvasively, CNBC reported last year. And Google announced in 2014 that it was working on a glucose-detecting contact lens that could alert patients via tiny LED lights – yes, apparently in the lenses themselves – if levels go too high or low. But neither of these technologies is ready for prime time.