The next-gen Apple Watch could feature a sensor that will help monitor your blood sugar.
Per Korean web site ET News, the Apple Watch Series 7, which is slated to launch later this year, could include a blood sugar sensor. The move would add to the health applications which have become a major selling point for the smartwatch.
When Apple first launched the Apple Watch, the company primarily marketed it as a convenient way to view and respond to notifications. It fairly quickly became apparent, however, that it was the health and fitness features which were driving sales, and Apple adapted its messaging and product development focus accordingly.
CEO Tim Cook offered the following comment regarding adding medical capabilities to the device, citing potential hurdles in waiting for FDA approval that could hold back innovation:
“We don’t want to put the watch through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) process. I wouldn’t mind putting something adjacent to the watch through it, but not the watch, because it would hold us back from innovating too much, the cycles are too long. But you can begin to envision other things that might be adjacent to it — maybe an app, maybe something else.”
Apple would later include such features in response to customer demand, and in 2018, the company added ECG functionality to the wearable, including Afib detection. The introduction of the Apple Watch Series 6 included a feature that monitored blood oxygen saturation levels.
A move towards incorporating a blood sugar sensor would be an obvious next step, as the American Diabetes Association estimates that more than 10 percent of Americans have diabetes, and that over 26 million of them are undiagnosed. The incorporation of such a sensor would be invaluable in prompting formal testing, diagnosis and treatment.
It’s not clear at this stage whether the existing infrared sensor will be able to act as a blood glucose detector too. Customers can already buy affordable home test devices that sync to your iPhone and Apple Watch, but these rely on small pin-pricks. The current focus is on non-invasive detection, and this can be achieved via infrared sensors.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.