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FDA approves the first smart insulin pen cap to help with dosing
Bigfoot Unity works with Abbott's FreeStyle Libre 2 glucose monitoring system.
Startup claims its new wearable can monitor blood sugar without needles
It's an outrageous claim, but a huge one if true.
AI could be the key to catching Type 1 diabetes much earlier
Will AI lead to a quicker diagnosis of diabetes, a condition often called the silent killer? IBM researchers are hoping so. They recently announced an AI-powered screening tool that could potentially identify Type 1 diabetes antibodies in people's blood.
Samsung launches S Health services: Monitors weight, blood sugar and graphs it all
Samsung mentioned its S Health app in passing during the grand unveiling of the Galaxy S III -- presumably due to the glut of similarly S-suffixed apps and services that were also unveiled. The service has now apparently launched in Samsung's homeland, alongside more details of what it'll offer. This includes a raft of metric-measuring charts, as well as the ability to connect through Bluetooth and USB to health devices like heart-rate monitors and connectivity-friendly scales. The app will record and even graph your health ups and downs, aiming to help "regulate" what you eat and gauge exactly how much you exercise. It has now launch on Samsung's App hub and will make its way to the US and five to-be-confirmed European countries soon. Let Samsung explain the "warm emotional experience" in a Google-translated release right after the break. Update: We've just received the English version of the PR, which adds that the app is now live in the UK, alongside an initial list of compatible health devices. Take a look after the break.
Glucose sensor skin implant glows when blood sugar spikes
Checking blood glucose levels used to mean a finger prick and a test-strip, but researchers at the University of Tokyo are offering a different approach: a glowing skin implant. After being injected with the 1 mm wide filament, it monitors your blood sugar by glowing when your level changes. Based on existing glowing glucose sensor technology, this hydrogel fiber is considered more accurate and stable than its predecessors, plus it requires no oxygen to function. So far, it's worked in mice for up to 140 days. Note to future human patients: don't eat a candy bar before you go to bed unless you want your arm looking like a nightlight.
Implantable blood sugar sensor could eliminate daily finger pricks
Science has been figuring out ways to sidestep those dreaded finger pricks for years now, but it's not often that we hear of such a permanent solution as this. A crew of researchers from The University of Tokyo and BEANS Research Institute are in the process of developing a newfangled blood sugar sensor that "reacts to glucose and lights up inside the body." 'Course, injecting dyes into humans in order to receive interpretable signals ain't exactly new, but hydrogel is what makes this approach unique. As the story goes, this jelly-esque material can be implanted within the body, enabling blood sugar levels to be monitored and measured externally with no pain or irritation whatsoever. In theory, a monitoring system could trigger an alert as soon as the internal levels dipped or rose beyond a predetermined extreme, giving those with diabetes a maximum amount of time to get things back in balance. There's nary a mention of when this goo will be green-lit by the FDA, but there's definitely a video explaining everything just past the break.
Researchers develop blood sugar-monitoring contacts
They're not the only ones working on contact lenses that measure blood sugar levels, but researchers at the University of Maryland's Biotechnology Institute led by Dr. Chris Geddes seem to have taken the technology further than most. They've reportedly developed special molecules that can detect glucose at very low levels which, when incorporated into a pair of contact lenses, should be adequate for detecting the amount of glucose in the wearer's tears -- which is about one tenth the amount in blood. What's more, unlike previous versions of the technology -- which required an additional device to read the results -- Geddes' new lenses will be able to simply display the results as a dot in the wearer's field of vision, changing colors to indicate low or high blood sugar levels. A lot more pleasant than the pin prick most diabetics now use to monitor their blood sugar to be sure, although as you can no doubt guess, more testing is needed before the lenses can be released into the wild.[Via Digg]
