Samsung hints that an optical blood glucose sensor might be closer than we think

Non-invasive blood glucose measurement is one of the so-called “holy grails” of modern health tracking. Samsung just recently held the Galaxy Tech Forum in San Jose, California. During the conference, Samsung’s Senior Vice President and Head of the Digital Health Team at Mobile eXperience Business, Dr. Hon Pak, elaborated on the company’s work on the hard task.

What I’m really excited about is our team, as you may have assumed, we are working on a non-invasive optically-based continuous glucose monitor. I can’t tell you the time [of the launch], but I’m very excited about the progress we are making, and this, if we do it right, will be a game-changer.

While we clearly don’t know much about the hopefully upcoming technology, we do know that it is optically based, which means that it could be incorporated alongside the existing optical sensors in devices like the Galaxy Watch or potentially even the Galaxy Ring. Although, at least initially, the sensor size might be too large to incorporate into anything other than a standalone device.

Even if that is the case, we are talking about a huge potential milestone in health tracking and a potential revolution in quality of life for many people suffering from diabetes. Current measurement methods are invasive and require either poking a needle through the skin to get a blood sample or inserting a special sensor in the body for continuous tracking. If Samsung cracks non-invasive, continuous blood glucose tracking, it would also benefit general users and unlock interesting metrics like monitoring glucose spikes related to food intake.

It is also worth mentioning that Apple representatives have previously touched upon non-invasive blood glucose tracking as well, but never in any sort of detail, mostly stating that it is a very hard task. Industry insiders have long speculated that Cupertino is also working on similar tech. That’s certainly worth keeping an eye on as well. In any case, things are looking bright for the possibility of such technology in the near to medium future.

Source | Via