Rockley Photonics, a company based in California that makes the biosensors used in Apple wearables, is working on a technology that can help health experts monitor their patients' glucose levels.
Rockley Photonics Wearable
On Mar. 10, Rockley Photonics announced that it teamed up with Medtronic, a medical device manufacturer based in Minnesota, to scale a health wearable that can detect the user's health metric, including their sugar and glucose levels.
Being able to detect a patient's glucose levels without giving blood samples or getting an implant is a medical breakthrough, and the technology can help save a lot of lives, according to Fast Company.
Rockley Photonics is no stranger to wearables. In the past, the company manufactured Bioptx, a wrist-worn health wearable that can detect glucose trends together with the user's body temperature, blood pressure, alcohol, body hydration, and lactate.
Also Read: Apple Watch Series 7, Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Soon to Monitor Blood Sugar Levels and Glucose!
The Bioptx was created to last for days between charging, and it can only monitor biometrics. However, Bioptx has not yet been rolled out to the general public.
But with the company teaming up with Medtronic, Rockley's technology can run through clinical trials to get the approval of the Food and Drug Administration or FDA.
Rockley CEO Andrew Rickman said they are engaged in the market and are currently working on designing their technology into leading companies in the consumer space and into the next batch of products, StatonFoods.
Health has been thought about in the context of disease. Obesity has been used as an indicator for understanding someone's risk of common diseases like stroke, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes.
There are other links like high cholesterol and high blood sugar, but weight is the most visible of signs and is the target for addressing poor health.
However, that is changing because researchers are slowly uncovering that humans can be metabolically healthy and healthy and skinny and sickly.
Key Metric for Understanding Health
One of the key metrics for understanding someone's health is blood sugar. It can detect if someone is at risk of developing common diseases.
High blood sugar can put people at risk of developing diabetes. Still, it can also result in nerve damage, organ failure, blood vessel damage, and tissue damage, all of which end up in a stroke, kidney disease, heart attack, and blindness.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, several startups, including Signos, January AI, Levels, and Supersapiens, have cropped up to help those not diagnosed with diabetes get a handle on their blood sugar by tracking it with a glucose monitor.
However, that requires needles and external devices that may be difficult to carry around.
Current wearable glucose monitors can detect someone's glucose levels through their body fluid that runs between their cells. It requires injecting a filament into the patient's arm through a needle. Although the process is not painful, it can be challenging for those who fear needles.
Being able to wear a smartwatch that can track your glucose levels is the best way to monitor your health, and Rockley Photonics may be able to deliver that solution.
In 2017, Apple said that it is working on creating a wearable that can monitor blood sugar levels.
In 2021, Apple added that aside from a blood sugar level monitor, it is also working on adding a feature that can monitor your alcohol levels.
Related Article: Apple Mentions Blood Glucose Monitoring in an Apple Watch User Survey
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Sophie Webster
