Noninvasive blood glucose monitoring is probably the most sought-after functionality by users and device manufacturers when it comes to wearables and health.
We are probably still years away from achieving this. However, many companies are working on technologies that could at least tell a user if his glucose levels are high, normal, or low.
Related Reading:
- Know Labs gets ready to launch its clinical trials for noninvasive blood Glucose monitoring
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- Noninvasive Glucose monitoring company Hagartech divulges $4.4M Series A funding for its wearable bracelet
- Alertgy’s noninvasive CGM (glucose monitoring) wristband, DeepGluco shows promise in a new study
- Apple exploring advanced sensors that could help with Blood Glucose and Blood Pressure monitoring on the Apple Watch
One of these efforts has transpired into a full-fledged clinical trial at the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Singapore.
Researchers at this leading hospital recently announced a clinical trial to evaluate a wearable that uses photoplethysmography (PPG) and sophisticated AI algorithms to monitor glucose levels in a continuous and noninvasive fashion.
Diabetic patients have a two to a three-fold higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease, and cardiovascular diseases accounted for 29.2% of all deaths in Singapore.
Wearable devices are ubiquitous, easy to use, and may allow for screening and further monitoring of a large population of patients.
The device/platform leading this clinical trial is a company called Actxa Pte Ltd.
Headquartered in Singapore, Actxa is a digital health company that currently offers a wearable called Spark+ and a digital scale called Actxa Sense.
This year, Actxa Pte. Ltd (“Actxa”) has also partnered with the Singapore Heart Foundation (SHF) as a product sponsor with our Actxa Spark+ fitness trackers and Actxa Sense 2 Smart Scale for their year-long heart health awareness campaigns.
Actxa Pte. and Joint Chinese Limited (“JC”), alongside its associated group of companies, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) on 2 August 2022 to join hands in market penetration and expansion for Pre-M DiabetesTM, also known as the Non-Invasive Blood Glucose Monitoring technology.
Both will also work closely on the worldwide distribution of JC’s wearables powered by Pre-M DiabetesTM.
Actxa is the first Singapore company to develop a comprehensive AI solution that leverages consumer-grade wearables to detect blood glucose dysregulation. The Pre-M DiabetesTM is the only noninvasive blood glucose detection solution going through a clinical validation study in Southeast Asia.
Results and findings from this clinical study are to be published in the second half of 2022 in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Actxa will conduct more clinical trials shortly to provide further evidence for new products.
There have been other Asian companies that have entered the race to demystify noninvasive glucose monitoring.
At CES, we saw a product from a Japanese startup that showed promise, but we haven’t heard anything about the results of clinical studies.
California-based Cygnus Inc. received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in 2001 for a wearable medical device called GlucoWatch Biographer. It has been more than 20 plus years of research and development. The hope quickly faded, and the company was forced to shut down in 2006.
Hopefully, we will see new technology soon in this area that could help pre-diabetes and type-2 diabetes people.
