- Continuous glucose monitors provide diabetics with an invaluable data set for managing their blood sugar level.
- Right now, these wearable solutions still use a needle for access to your bloodstream.
- Samsung is working to take the needle out of the equation with a noninvasive optical solution.
Smart wearables are as useful as they are largely thanks to all the sensor data they’re able to gather. As long as we’ve got them on, they’re counting our steps, reading our pulse, measuring blood oxygen content, and plenty more. The companies that make the best wearables are always interested in pushing limits to add new sensor capabilities to their products, like how a number of them have been experimenting with for blood pressure. Today we’re learning about Samsung’s work towards achieving just such a milestone: noninvasive optical blood glucose monitoring.
People with diabetes have been testing their glucose levels for decades, and technology has been improving all along, bringing us from the days of fingerstick blood draws and test strips, to the wearable continuous glucose monitors that connect with our phones over Bluetooth. And as those testing options have become more accessible (with less exposure to needles and blood), there’s been growing interest in even non-diabetics using data about their glucose levels to make nutrition and health decisions.