Apple is close to adding a glucose monitor to their Watch!

[thewayne]

This is very cool. Assuming it's sufficiently accurate, this will be a heck of a game-changer for diabetics. And accuracy is pretty important for this! My Apple Watch does a three-lead ECG to check for AFib, measures my pulse, and SpO2. The pulse and SpO2 results are very comparable to my BP machine's reading and a finger pulse oxymeter with both devices measuring pulse rate. Of course, the accuracy of home medical equipment vs the equipment in a medical practice is always subject to debate.

Temperature is expected to be added at some point. People would like to see BP measured by the watch, but that's very difficult as normally that's measured by a vein being listened to collapsing and re-opening.

https://www.engadget.com/apple-watch-no-prick-blood-glucose-monitor-200137031.html

Comments

[acelightning73]

I have seen a lot of ads for continuous glucose monitoring devices - some will work with any smart phone. I'd love to stop puncturing my fingertip every morning, but they're expensive, and then I'd have to buy a smart phone.

And the deeper question is, who's going to have access to all this information about our bodies?

[thewayne]

Yep, medical privacy is definitely a big issue, especially here in the USA where it seems to be largely ignored. I had dinner with an old friend several times last week, he now lives in Mexico - we were both in Phoenix.  He has been having a lot of problems with his mother's death last year - bad dreams, poor sleep - and was put on a couple of meds.  HIS DOCTOR CALLED HIM and told him he was sleeping too much, and to lay off a med or two for a couple of days!  Friend's Apple Watch reports to his doc, something set up by my friend. Something like that I think is good, but the way the government has let medical middle men get inveigled into health insurance and the entire system here is not remotely controlled.

[acelightning73]

My cardiologist likes to yell at me. I can imagine I'm enjoying something tasty, and he calls me and demands to know what i'm eating, it's making my blood sugar go up unacceptably. Nope!

[thewayne]

Fortunately stuff like that I'm sure would be opt-in and a manual configuration before it streamed to your doc.

[acelightning73]

A smart watch that monitors blood chemistry, pulse rate, and other parameters would appeal to people who need to follow strict limits on these readings, but for an ordinary person they'd just be invasive.

[thewayne]

Agreed.  Apple is very good about opt-in vs opt-out.  You don't have to share anything that you don't want to.