DexCom device, app to work with Apple Watch upon launch, continuously monitor glucose levels for diabetics

This is interesting.

Medical company DexCom says that a glucose monitor made by the company that monitors blood sugar levels will be supported by the Apple Watch. The company is currently working on an app for the wearable that will be able to show blood sugar levels at a glance and can monitor them continuously.

The app has apparently been under construction for some time and while the Food and Drug Administration is generally required to approve new medical hardware, a hands-off approach to the companion app has allowed developers to sink their teeth into its creation for the time being.

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.

Kind of nifty and it’ll be interesting to see where this goes. Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Via 9to5Mac and The Wall Street Journal