Apple reportedly had a breakthrough with a non-invasive blood glucose monitoring project that could launch the company into a major force in the healthcare industry, as per a recent Bloomberg report.
The company has reached the ‘proof-of-concept’ stage for its sensor technology that can continually measure a person’s blood sugar levels without requiring any skin-pricking for calibration or analysis. Instead, the monitor will use optical absorption spectroscopy, a measurement process that relies on wavelengths of light to ultimately determine glucose levels.
The chip technology called ‘silicon photonics’ uses lasers to emit specific wavelengths of light into an area below the skin containing the interstitial fluid that can be absorbed by glucose. The light gets reflected back to the sensor in a way that indicates the concentration of glucose with the help of an algorithm. Apple has reportedly cleared this technology in preliminary trials as the results are comparable to that of the glucose trackers that require blood samples.
Apple's eventual aim is to incorporate the monitor into the Apple Watch, making it an essential device for all the people with diabetes worldwide. When it does, the company will be positioned to disrupt a multimillion dollar industry where approximately 1 in 10 Americans have diabetes, and prick their skin to monitor their glucose levels.
The secret project, called E5, is a part of the company's Exploratory Design Group, XDG, which is reportedly one of the most undercover initiatives at the company.
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