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Apple

Apple Watch Series 7 Rumored To Feature Blood Glucose Monitoring (macrumors.com) 69

Posted by BeauHD from the what-will-they-think-of-next dept.
According to Korea's ETNews, Apple is expected to feature blood glucose monitoring via an optical sensor in the Apple Watch Series 7. MacRumors reports: The report, which mainly focuses on the blood glucose capabilities of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, explains that Apple is intending to bring blood glucose monitoring to the upcoming Apple Watch Series 7 using a non-invasive optical sensor. Measuring blood glucose levels, also known as blood sugar levels, is vital to managing conditions such as diabetes. Normally, measuring blood glucose requires testing a drop of blood in a blood sugar meter or using an implanted continuous glucose monitor (CGM). The ability to observe any major increases or decreases in blood glucose may raise awareness of a potential health condition or simply help to improve a user's diet.

Apple is said to have secured patents around blood glucose monitoring, and the company is now purportedly "focusing on securing reliability and stability prior to commercialization of the technology." The Apple-designed optical sensor is believed to be a skin-top continuous monitoring solution that does not require an implant. [...] The Apple Watch Series 7 is expected to arrive later this year, but there have been few rumors around what the new models may feature. While there have been reports of microLED displays and solid-state buttons with haptic feedback for the Apple Watch, these are not directly expected for the Apple Watch Series 7.
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Apple Watch Series 7 Rumored To Feature Blood Glucose Monitoring More

Apple Watch Series 7 Rumored To Feature Blood Glucose Monitoring

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  • Are they claiming its a medicl device? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Careful apple. that's quite the balancing act you're starting. Telling customers it will detect blood glucose but then denying its a medical device to the regulators. This is going to get messy when diabetics start to die because they trusted apple.

    • Just put Emacs on a watch, I'm sure it comes with med apps. "Imacs"? Oh, taken.

      • Curious how many people even remember the Emacs does everything debates. You sound like an old dude like me.

        • You are on an old site kid.

          Are you going to a retirement home telling people they are old too?

          Go back to TikTok.

        • Curious how many people even remember the Emacs does everything debates. You sound like an old dude like me.

          If I remember correctly, from way back when, Emacs can automate that debate... :-)

          [ And, yes, I've used Emacs since the 80s. ]

        • Re: Feature creep (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Entrope ( 68843 ) on Monday January 25, 2021 @06:27PM (#60991358) Homepage

          Some of us remember when Emacs was said to stand for "Eight Megabytes And Constantly Swapping", because nobody could imagine how a text editor could possibly cause a computer with a whopping eight megabytes of RAM to swap much.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by uufnord ( 999299 )
            There were a bunch of good acronyms. I remember these 2 as well:

            Eats Memory And Crashes System

            Escape Meta Alt Control Shift

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Tablizer ( 95088 )

          how many people even remember the Emacs does everything debates. You sound like an old dude like me.

          Emacs even automatically kicks kids off my lawn.

    • As opposed to dying because they believed covid was a hoax? The docs will still say resume 3x a day finger sticks. Its a lame gimmick. Low blood sugar is not a thing if you are not injecting insulin or destroying your liver with Metformin (glucophage). Your liver will continue to dump glycogen into your blood stream to maintain glucose levels. Its only when you run out of glycogen that your liver then burns fats into ketones. And even then it isnt an issue. Its only a concern when you take medication that k

      • Low blood sugar is not a thing

        But high blood sugar is a thing, and a significant one.

        • Yes, it's called diabetes.

          Or eating shit that causes diabetes.

          Don't eat shit with a high glycemic load (not index!). Like candy or savory candy or drinkable candy or candy that you can eat with milk, or anything else made mostly from from processed starch.
          They taste like cheap shit anyway.

          There. Solved the entire premise. Gimme a Slashvertisement and hyper-defensive fanboy crowd too!

    • They can just print "Dietary Supplment - Do not eat Apple Watch" somewhere in the package.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      Apple is careful about itâ(TM)s biometric capabilities. First pulse, which old school, the EKG country by country. In the US at least, it says it will not diagnose heart attack. Now O2 levels, which on any home device is just a guess anyway.

      Any glucometer, as far as I know, has to be accurate to with 5% to be sold in the US this is under ideal condition. In my experience, home use is more like 10%. My concern would be that people are not educated about blood glucose levels. For diabetics this would b

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

        Blood O2 measurements using LEDs is old, old tech. It's quite straightforward. The sensor on one of these watches is the same as the one they stick on your finger in the hospital.

        Now, an ECG using closely spaced electrodes on your wrist is a bit questionable.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by fermion ( 181285 )
          My problem with o2 sensors is that 93 and 96 are significantly different, and you take every finger and get a 4 point range.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by k2r ( 255754 )

        > But if people freaks because they have a high level after eating an ice cream, that is not great.

        Maybe seeing the levels rise (and fall) steeply when eating junk and behaving moderately when eating proper food can have an educative effect on people who want to know it? To have a closed feedback loop?

        Imagine a device that tracks your weight. Of course you know if you are fat, maybe. But wouldn't it be useful to realize you gained weight because of your eating habits the last month before you harmed your

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tippen ( 704534 )

        Any glucometer, as far as I know, has to be accurate to with 5% to be sold in the US this is under ideal condition. In my experience, home use is more like 10%.

        I wish they were that accurate...

        Current FDA standards for personal-use glucose meters is that 95% of the measurements must be within +/- 15% across the measuring range. 99% of the measurements must be within +/- 20%

        The FDA standards for clinical blood glucose monitoring systems isn't much better. It's only 95% of values must be within +/- 12% (98% within +/- 15%).

        There was a push in 2014 to tighten it down to +/- 10%, but they got too much pushback (meters and test strips would be more expensive, no more 5

    • As always for these gimmick biotech devices, the key is in the claims they make: "The ability to observe any major increases or decreases in blood glucose mayÂ(emphasis mine)"

      "Major" means it is not accurate or precise enough to measure blood glucose in a way that's useful for diabetics.

      "May" means that you won't really be able to draw any useful conclusions regarding health from the values that are measured.

      Apple will of course sell millions to the set of consumers who can't recognize these cop-
      • oh, it all went bold. "May" and "major" were the only 2 words that were meant to be bolded.

        • You can't figure out how to properly bold text, yet you've convinced yourself you're smart enough to complain about other people's ability to understand things?

          • You think accidentally dropping a slash when typing a html formatted message on a phone is a measure of intelligence?

            You also think knowledge of html is correlated with knowledge of biotech measurement hardware physics and optics?

            If you want to complain about typos - you're the guy who said Apple might be using "simulated raman scattering" - when 1) it's "stimulated", but more importantly 2) they ain't getting a powerful enough laser for raman into a smartwatch with current battery technology - we're or
    • lets see what happens... i'd love this tech to hit the market and then improve. if the apple or the samsung device can be somewhat accurate, it can be useful. if its good enough, or becomes good enough in a future revision an app could run an insulin pump. say if it measures over 8 mmol/l for 15 mins it alerts and pumps 3 units of insulin. or if its not stable enough just alerts above say 8 and below 4, (include neccessary margin for error based on its accuracy). that would be super awesome for not sleepin

  • I'm interested (Score:5, Informative)

    by flatulus ( 260854 ) on Monday January 25, 2021 @05:47PM (#60991218)
    I've had ZERO interest in smartwatches. But if I could get continuous glucose monitoring (linked to an app in my iPhone), I would probably bite.

    There are already a couple of score zero AC posts above mine carping about how lame the idea is. Here's my situation. I'm a type 2 diabetic, diagnosed 27 years ago. I had a difficult time maintaining blood sugar until my endrocinologist finally put me on an insulin pump. Realistically the pump, as such, is of little benefit. But the associated continuous glucose monitoring is a godsend! If I could get that without having to poke a hole in my skin once a week and carry a "puck" around on my flank, it would be awesome.

    As for accuracy, well the CGM associated with my pump is horrible. It is off by as much as 40% as often as several times a week. And on the blood sample, I can take 2 or 3 readings back to back and get 10% variance in a space of a minute or two. None of this glucose monitoring is all that accurate in my experience. But it's damn helpful to know my blood sugar has climbed above 200 when I wasn't looking. Even if it's a false positive, an alarm from a monitor when it's outside the acceptable range catches my attention and I can do the finger prick to confirm.

    I'm approaching Medicare, and from what I've been told, my diabetes isn't severe enough for me to qualify for an insulin pump. Without the pump, my CGM is worthless. So if I'm gonna ditch the pump, I'd really like to have an affordable (even if shitty accuracy) CGM and a smart watch sounds like a pretty good deal.

    • > I've had ZERO interest in smartwatches. But if I could get continuous glucose monitoring (linked to an app in my iPhone), I would probably bite.

      Same here. My Fitbit is OK but annoys me in so many ways. For instance, it can automatically tell when I start and stop a walk, but can't figure out that I finished my stationary bike ride... even if I take it off! Silly things like that are *so* annoying - no, idiot, I did not do a 74 hour bike ride! But if this actually does reasonable glucose monitoring, I'l

    • I've had ZERO interest in smartwatches.

      We know you've had ZERO interest in smartwatches, but your purchasing history says you do have an interest in SNICKERS candy bars. And your blood glucose level says you could really use one right now. There's a convenience store on your right in 300 meters, and if you use coupon code CANDYAPPLE21 you get 21% off your total order!

    • It might be useful for myself, but my main interest is that I have a few family members that have type 2 diabetes that I would gladly buy an Apple Watch for if it would make their lives easier.

      The Apple Watch today is already useful from a health warning perspective in terms of heart monitoring, and the fall detection. I've never had a heart alert trigger yet but I have managed to fall hard enough to trigger the fall minter a few times, nice to know if I had a more serious fall it would call someone. This

    • It's not a lame idea, but no one with knowledge of the field believes Apple has cracked this in a way that's useful for diabetics in their watch. If you want some background as to why, have a read of this: http://www.mendosa.com/The%20P... [mendosa.com]

    • You're not alone. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Frobnicator ( 565869 ) on Monday January 25, 2021 @06:34PM (#60991382) Journal

      Exactly the case.

      Nobody likes poking their finger and drawing blood, especially people who need 6+ pokes per day and even the cheap brands (eg walmart versions) can cost over a buck a day. Continuous glucose monitors have accuracy issues, and they still have a tiny poke every week or two, plus they're even more expensive at about $100/month.

      A smart watch that provides continuous monitoring without a needle or 'filament' and is accurate enough for FDA approval and for making injection decisions, that would be absolutely amazing. No pricks and saves a fortune over the long term. I'm not in the Apple ecosystem but I would buy and wear the watch as a glucose monitor in a heartbeat.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Is it not worth switching to Android and getting the Samsung one? Or maybe the Samsung one even works with an iPhone.

    • As for accuracy, well the CGM associated with my pump is horrible.

      That's been my experience as well. I'm a lifelong Type 1 that uses a pump. About 8 years ago I tried using a Medtronic CGM, and the numbers were so wildly inaccurate that it was pretty much useless. I still found myself doing regular old finger sticks at least 6 times a day to keep the thing calibrated.

      I know the real usage was for my endocrinologist to determine daily trends, but even he couldn't make sense of the data because it wasn't unheard of for the calibration to be off by 100 or more. I also di

      • The Dexcom in 2021 is no better. It's useful for trend information, but requires frequent re-calibration. The "you're so low you're going to die" alarm is pants-shitting, but good to have.

        Don't expect too much from it.

  • The report, which mainly focuses on the blood glucose capabilities of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, explains that Apple is intending to bring blood glucose monitoring to the upcoming Apple Watch...

    Why does the poster talk about the Apple Watch and completely ignore the Galaxy Watch that is the subject of the linked article? It seems Samsung (in conjunction with MIT) are the innovators here, if one reads the linked article. Is the original poster trying to spin this as an Apple innovation?

    I do have a hard time believing this is an actual blood glucose meter and not and interstitial glucose meter. Continuous glucose meters are interstitial glucose meters. They read glucose in the in the fluid that surr

    • Simply being able to measure interstitial glucose only for deeper tissue layers would be an improvement. For which Samsung and others have recently been researching approaches.

      Also if you can isolate the measurement spatially then doing a blood vessel measurement simply means the device has to be placed over a vein and measure at the right depth.

  • seems far-fetched (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jds91md ( 2439128 ) on Monday January 25, 2021 @07:04PM (#60991450)
    Non-invasive blood glucose monitoring has been the holy grail of medical device makers for decades. It's never been done. Somehow Apple swoops in with no background in medical anything and aces it? Color me skeptical. Fantastic if they do it. But don't get your hopes up. Furthermore, consider the liability risk. It has to work 100% of the time. Not 99.9%, since 1-in-1,000 errors with tens of millions of diabetics checking sugars billions of time a year will be a big deal.

    • Somehow Apple swoops in with no background in medical anything and aces it?

      I don't know if Apple is berrer than all the others but they are No. 1 at making things stylish and expensive. We diabetics are fucking doomed.

    • Your argument may hold weight if Apple didn't "swoop in with no background" in several categories already and revolutionize them.

      • Your argument may hold weight if Apple didn't "swoop in with no background" in several categories already and revolutionize them.

        Like what, mp3 players, smartphones, smartwatches, laptops and ipads? There were nascent fields. For every revolutionized category, I can tell you 2 categories or more that they've underwhelmed in....music streaming, AppleTV, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, maps, monitors, networking gear, desktop computers (at least in the last 15 years they've been very underwhelming, at best), peripherals, just off the top of my head. Sure, some like their AppleTV and AppleTV+, for example, but they're no Roku/Netflix/Hulu/D

  • https://nlpc.org/2020/12/30/re... [nlpc.org]
    https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]

    If you buy Apple products you are a slave owner by proxy.

  • It's a big deal (Score:4, Informative)

    by Jodka ( 520060 ) on Monday January 25, 2021 @07:47PM (#60991536)

    Everyone in the blood glucose monitor business is convinced that the first company to produce a wearable non-invasive continuous monitor will have a license to print money. So the R&D effort to produce one has been enormous. I know Medtronic (net worth $5.29 Billion) has been going after it hard for more than a decade.

    So it's kind of a weird that Apple would just decide to do it and succeed where umpteen bazillion dollars have already been spent on R&D by medical device manufacturers.

    Though maybe it worked out that way not because Apple has super amazing genius engineering talent but because they timed their entry into that market to when solutions were becoming technology feasible [nih.gov].

    Come to think of it, a lot of what looks like super-amazing genius engineering and business talent is really just plain old amazing engineering and business talent coupled with smart timing. Modern electric cars would seem to be like that; One of the reasons that Tesla succeeded after a string of duds and failures by others is because it started after critical supporting technologies became available, such as wide bandgap materials [powerelectronics.com] and lithium batteries. Along those same lines, the Kennedy administration would not publicly endorse a moonshot until it received assurances that all key foundational technologies were already in place. Again, that's not so much Kennedy leading the nation to a great leap in technological progress as Kennedy doing his homework on timing.

    • I would assume its the weird situation where:
      1. Apple is willing to use outsourced patents, either for submarine patents or to build actual devices
      2. Apple has a rather wide portofolio and a decent R&D budget

      Tesla is a bit different, where many of the needed technologies such as MOSFET and Lithium Ion has been standards since the 70s and 90s respectively, where small car manufacturers can not afford Vertical Integration, and become dependent on other companies to R&D parts that will not cater to the

    • You can google around, some have been approved since 2017, and use a similar method than the calculation of blood oxygenation : use an IR or longer wave length beam through skin (mostly earlob from what i googled) , measure the resulting absorbance. To my knowledge it hasn't spread to hospital setting due to reliability - but I have few hospital contacts so my info may be utterly outdated. What surprise me is that Apple pretend they will get a reliable meaasure just by measuring reflectance, rather than abs

  • Unlike SpO2 metering which Apple claimed was revolutionary only to be the last watch company to bring it to the market.

  • Your children will be monitored. Continually. Blood pressure, heart rate, glucose level, insulin level and more. Do you have appropriate levels of essential nutrients in your blood stream and reaching the places where they need to go? Are your many hormones at appropriate levels during your biocycles? Are your cells eliminating waste efficiently?

    These are critical questions. They are answered for most people once a year or less. Yet they vary widely from moment to moment, hour to hour, week to week. They ne

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