Diabetics using a glucose monitor made by DexCom will be able to see a continuous graph of their blood sugar levels on the Apple Watch, says the company. It is working on an app for the smartwatch that is expected to be available when the Apple Watch launches in April – alongside a similar app for the iPhone.
DexCom’s glucose monitor tracks a person’s blood-sugar levels continuously. The [app] converts that data into a simple graph that is just a glance at the wrist away.
The WSJ reports that the early availability of the app has been made possible thanks to the Food and Drug Administration taking a more hands-off approach as of last month. While medical hardware still requires FDA approval before it can be sold, companion apps no longer need prior approval – developers simply have to notify the FDA that the app exists …
Conventional glucose monitors require the user to prick their skin with a needle in order to draw a drop of blood to place on a test-strip, a process that is inconvenient and which generates only isolated readings. The DexCom monitor uses a tiny sensor embedded just under the surface of the skin which takes blood sugar readings every five minutes. The companion app reads that data and creates a graph on the Apple Watch.
It was revealed last week that more than half of the top US hospitals have already launched pilot programs using HealthKit to remotely monitor patients with chronic medical conditions.
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This is a great use of the new screen on your wrist, and hopefully just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the health and lifestyle improvements that Apple Watch can bring. Keeping my fingers crossed for Pulse Oximetry to make an appearance courtesy of the sensor array in the launch keynote. Roll on April! :-)
Since my mother is a brittle diabetic I have been following every rumor and hoping this thing comes out bug free. All I have to say is bravo!
There is no reason that it wouldn’t be bug free. It is displaying the same basic data that the Dexcom receiver currently receives from the transmitter. Dexcom has been selling this technology for years, the only new thing here is the screen that will display the info, all the work is done within the transmitter.
Well, what is going to be different this time around is that a tiny transmitter will have to be put inside of a persons skin. We don’t know how that will pan out because DexCom is now entering biometrics now, not outside products that work fine “externally”. This will be a test in itself as ANYTHING never before done will have some sort of issues or as we called them, ‘bugs’ that they will need to update and fix in however ways it causes problems. Don’t think that we all live in a perfect world and that nothing can go wrong. Naivety can cripple peoples hopes and dreams.
Uh, no, there’s nothing different going on. You still wear the same dexcom sensor and dexcom receiver, just now you also carry an iPhone and an apple watch and the graph is displayed on little screen on the watch. Keeping in mind that the dexcom receiver in you pocket actually has a nice high res color display, this is actually a very expensive way to buy a little convenience at this stage. When the sensor talks straight to the phone or the watch you’ll be seeing something new, but that will of course require lengthy approval.
People forget, you still need a £5/600 iPhone! Despite the fact that standards such as Bluetooth, WiFi, NFC etc can function superbly on a sub £100/$100 Android or Microsoft handset, Apple Watch will only work on the latest iPhones. So, you’re talking about over £1000 for a glucose monitor. Apple could have really shaken things up and been a lot more ethical if they had built the glucose monitor into the rear of the watch and made it work with any phone equipped with aforementioned industry standard technologies.
The watch comparability goes back to the iPhone 5
it should work with the iPhone 1. That has Bluetooth so could communicate with the Apple Watch.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion.
**Compatibility
Oflife: It is only compatible with Bluetooth LE chips which goes back as far as iPhone5. LE stands for Low Energy and is very power friendly, most small devices use this chip now so compatibility to newer devices is common.
Why does Apple have to sell a device to people that uses other operating system? You would do the same thing if u were working for Apple? You want their awesome devices? Moves to their ecosystem… You don’t, then keep using the million watches companies with android had release and nobody knows them. And by the way, for 1200 you are not getting just a glucose monitor… Also: didn’t know Samsung Gear or any other Android phone worked with iOS…
Ethical? Yeah….like the rest of the healthcare industry. And why would you want your watch to have a sensor constantly lodged under your skin that has to be changed every few days? I think I would rather a company with a lot more experience in building healthcare devices, which have already been tested and approved by the FDA handle this.
There are ways of testing blood sugar levels without consumables, so it could be done, but the corrupt BigPharma likes us to be addicted to a lifetime supply of strips etc.
None of which are as accurate as a standard glucose meter. Even the monitors that read through the skin require the pickup to be changed out every day or two and have much less accuracy.
Your point of Apple not being ethical because it didn’t get into the medical hardware industry is ignorant. Sorry.
“The DexCom monitor uses a tiny sensor embedded just under the surface of the skin which takes blood sugar readings every five minutes.”
It would appear the patient would need to have an incision to embedded the sensor. That’s an added expense someone would have to pay. It might be less costly for a diabetic to continue with the prick and read method.
It’s a tiny 1/4″ – 1/2″ plastic catheter that gets changed out once or twice a week and is inserted with a small plunger and feels no worse than a pin prick. On top of that attaches the sensor. The sensor transmits to the glucose monitor, which then transmits it’s data to the iPhone, which then displays it on the watch face. The multiple glucose monitors on the market do NOT replace the standard finger prick testing using the glucose meter, but rather supplements it. It gives additional data. The app and iPhone allows it to be displayed with much more granularity than the monitor screen itself. But, yes, you are correct. Adding another piece of medical hardware will Always increase the cost.
No, the Dexcom system isn’t new. It uses a catheter based approach to receive readings.
People seem to be confused by this article: ALL this is doing is allowing for the Apple Watch to display the data. In the past, users of the Dexcom system had to use specific devices. This merely adds another avenue for users to display their data.
on the surface this looks like good news for those who need to keep an eye on their levels. I wish they would of talked a little more about the embedding of the sensor.
Great news.
When the devices are non intrusive thats when it will make an impact.
Having been a type 1 diabetic ( insulin dependant ) for the past 31 years I totally understand the concept that Apple are introducing here. I have worn a Medtronic Insulin Pump for the past 3 years that is financed by the NHS in the UK. The pump alone has a price of £1000 and the supplies needed to support it run in at £200 every 3 months. To send data via a sensor is a cost that the individual has to meet themselves ( only if they want to ) and this means changing the sensor daily at a cost of £6 each time. So you have to fork out approx. £180 every month. I don’t know if Apple are introducing a sensor that is implanted only once and would therefore make the runnung costs much cheaper if you have the other Apple hardware. I wait with bated breath for more information.
Apple is not releasing a sensor. It is a company who has an app that interfaces with their sensor. Apple would need FDA approval (in the US) as it would then be considered medical hardware.
Is this so different than checking the same information on your phone? This article got my hopes up that the watch itself was able to monitor blood sugar levels, which would have been spectacular.
Oh yes I love hearing this. I myself am a type one diabetic and have been holding off on getting a CGM mainly because of the lack of smart device integrations to help track things with one device compared to three or four. I’m already getting an apple watch so this makes it even better in my book.
I will buy the apple watch just for this.
Why is everyone so confused here. There is no iPhone or Apple Watch sensor! It is a sensor made by Dexcom that has been available for years. The only innovation here is that it is going to link into HealthKit and also display on Apple watch. This will allow the user to not need the Dexcom receiver that displays this info. It also is not a way to stop pricking multiple times a day to test blood sugar. It is directional at best helping diabetic people to predict when they are going high or low before finding out when they prick. Pricking still needs to occur regardless of having this sensor.
http://www.dexcom.com/
I would like to see this first hand how this works since I myself am a diabetec. For people who are Diabetec’s should get a discount if this watch really works like it should. And be presented to the Diabeties Association of America.
I don’t think you understand that the watch is not a Constant Glucose Monitor. A CGM would require FDA approval. This nearly displays information collected by the App on the phone, which in turn receives that information from this CGM sensor and transmitter.
Abd no, you shouldn’t get a discount. You don’t get a discount on anything because your diabetic. Your insurance supplements the products you buy. This is not a medical device, but a way to display information gathered by apps on the phone.
I have been a Type 1 Diabetic for 33 years and have recently started using an insulin pump. I am also a huge Apple fan and have been since the original Macs showed up. I heard about Apple developing a device like this two years ago from a Doctor that was not suppose to be talking about it because he was involved in the process in some way. Unfortunately for the treatment of Type 1 Diabetes this is nothing new and nothing innovative except that it has the Apple logo on it.
There are at least two and possibly three pump makers that not only have a device to plant under the skin to detect blood sugar levels but that information is transferred back to a pump to deliver the correct ratio of insulin. The only problem is that right now these sensors are still not as accurate as blood testing and are only used to show daily trends similar to what the Apple watch will be doing. Once the pump makers get the censor more accurate and it’s part of a “closed” system it literally will be my “external pancreas” as I call my pump now. Testing blood sugars with a lancet and strips, delivering insulin with a needle or inlet which goes into or under the skin is extremely expensive, creates landfills full of medical waste, can be painful and is not the solution to this disease!
If the Apple watch could read an accurate blood sugar from your skin while attached to your wrist that would be truly remarkable and a breakthrough! The way Type 1 Diabetes is treated today has not really changed in 50 years. We are still pricking ourselves multiple times a day to try and get a blood sugar level and then delivering insulin to control the carbs we eat. The drug industry has given us better band-aids that keep us alive longer to maximize profit. There is virtually no profit involved to find a “cure” when compared to the billions made in treating the disease. This is just another band-aid and we will be no closer to a cure then we were before Steve Jobs was born.