The Real Reason the Apple Watch Lacks Glucose Monitoring

Apple’s Watch is capable of monitoring sleep, steps, heart-rate and oxygen. But why can’t it measure blood sugar? There have been years of reports of big tech companies trying to breakthrough into accessible non-invasive glucose monitoring, so what’s stopping it from being a reality?

I dig into Apple’s secrets, decode its patents and talk to some leaders in health tech to see whether measuring blood sugar above the skin could become a reality.

0:00 Checking blood glucose
0:46 Noninvasive glucose monitoring
1:56 Technological and regulatory challenges
3:20 Apple’s patents and research

I’m Dalvin Brown, a WSJ reporter covering personal technology, which includes the latest smart devices, apps and services making an impact on consumers. Subscribe if you're curious about what the latest tech developments mean for you, or if you want to go behind the scenes to find out what’s powering today's digital services.

#Apple #Health #DalvinBrown

[stevenwymor]

The Freestyle Libre does NOT use a tiny needle to measure your blood glucose. It uses a slender capillary action fiber that reads interstitial fluid beneath the skin and in the area of your fat cells. The only needle used is in the instantaneous application of the sensor. The measurement of blood glucose using the Freestyle Libre generally lags behind your actual blood glucose by about 15 minutes because interstitial fluid is not actually IN your bloodstream.

[alandunbar]

You can only view BG readings on a SmartWatch via Bluetooth and a 3rd party companion app which can display it on a watchface.. I have a Libre 2 CGM (btw @DalvinBrownWSJ you are slightly incorrect in your video about a CGM using a needle to measure blood glucose levels). A CGM uses a needle as a "delivery device" to place a synthetic filament in your arm, which in turn is attached to the sensor on your arm, It doesn't take the measurement of Blood Glucose using whole blood. It uses your body-fat's interstitial fluid in the back of the arm (the only recommended placement site) and through an algorithm determines an estimate on what your blood sugar will be (it has a window of about 10-15 mins on whole blood). You should also NEVER just rely on a CGM alone. The traditional Whole Blood finger-stick method should always be used if you CGM is alerting you to a Hypo- or Hyper- glycemic event. That is the most accurate measure,

[johnross]

Why not just take a smart watch and add the glucose testing patch to it. Ok a needle is still needed but that would actually make me buy a smart watch

[sarahandrickstewart]

Would be good if Abbott and Apple could just get the libre to talk to the watch! But I guess that won’t happen as both want to be the leader!

[JulAlxAU]

It will revolutionise the world of endurance sports!

[LionHeartInTheWild]

Service dogs can smell big changes in blood sugar. That is crazy..
How can we not invent a simple device that can do it too?

[dkbaghel]

how meaningful it is to explain what diabetes is in this video

[Mr.BrownsBasement]

I will summarize your video in 4 words: The technology isn't ready.
This isn't to say that you didn't make an interesting & informative video. You did. But a more accurate title would have been "Research into Measuring Glucose on Smartwatches" or "Hurdles Facing Smart Technology in Measuring Blood Glucose".

[johnross]

There was a YouTube ad for a watch that claims blood sugar monitoring but I knew it had to be BS so I started researching and I was right especially for something that cost 47 dollars. Of course there are pages of positive reviews. Just like the drones that were made for the military or the flashlights that are strong enough to start a fire 😂😂

[kenweidemoyer]

Thanks for the information. Very well done.

[jacksyd]

4:14 "The company filed a patent ... that would use electromagnetic radiation instead of light." - Light is EMR, this does not make sense!

[pepelabbi]

I would be happy, if I could see the measures of the Abbot Libre3 Sensor on my Apple Watch. Don’t understand why that’s not possible. It works only with my Apple IPhone! Why? Is Apple blocking? It will take years to develop a bloodless system. Even big machine can’t do that! Perhaps this feature will never come!

[lookingfortheking]

How can they not add an alarm to the freestyle monitor,
why is the alarm only accessible through an App??
This makes no sense!!!
Smaller watches can have an audible alarm set, WHT can freestyle lebra not have that easy function
My shild has to be in Bluetooth range permanently to not lose signal, and here the alarm on my phone
If the sensor has an audible alarm, he can call me when it goes off on low or high readings
This makes no sense, and any company can grab the market by adding this to the sensor

[carwoman]

The continuous glucose monitors actually don't leave a needle in your skin. The needle places a monofilament the width of a hair and the needle retracts. They're painless.

[clementte]

I look forward to an accurate and reliable noninvasive blood glucose monitoring

[cryptogreen]

I have the solution. How do I get in contact with apple?

[barrybennett]

Huawei's watch 4 may bring a decent monitor to US before apple.?

[stuartsinclair]

Stronger light needed to go through the skin, heart beats are stronger, I’ve heard that 10 people right now are wearing test watches, they have been told to wear these watches all the time for a year, then all these data collected, from there software improvements maybe needed, that the last I heard and that was beginning of the summer so 2025 maybe the year, no doubt this will fly off those apple shelves and be a No1 market leader, I do prefer a giant company to throw millions into development and accuracy 👍🏻

[grandmapatty]

I have a watch that tracks it. It’s awesome.

[KailynneMartin]

The comment at the end about the donut was unnecessary. If your sugar is high, you shouldn’t have any carbs (or should take insulin to lower blood sugar and to cover the donut). Even healthy foods like fruit have carbs. Please stop associating diabetes with junk food. It’s very ignorant and just makes the diabetes community think you’re stupid.