Apple initially struggled to sell the Apple Watch. It took a while before the tech giant finally revealed their smartwatch’s sales numbers. Now, however, it’s already become the world’s most popular wearable. Soon, it may also be real life-changer.
According to a report by CNBC, CEO Tim Cook was seen around the Apple campus wearing a version of the smartwatch with a glucose or blood sugar monitor attached to it. This prototype could be incorporated into the Apple Watch itself, potentially becoming a non-invasive way for checking blood sugar. Cook himself mentioned during a ceremony at the University of Glasgow last February that he’s “been wearing a continuous glucose monitor for a few weeks.”
Diabetes is one of the world’s most common diseases, with 422 million people diagnosed with it. As such, a smartwatch that can monitor glucose levels would truly be an improvement over more conventional, invasive, and prickly glucose-monitoring methods.
Apple isn’t the first to work on technologies that could help diabetes patients. Other research includes a smart contact lens that can monitor glucose levels as well as administer medication. There’s also an app that could allow a patient to regulate insulin-producing cells with just a smartphone. All of these show how medicine hugely benefits from technology’s most modern advances.