Diabetes monitoring is having a smartwatch and smartphone revolution

Diagnoses of diabetes, a condition where the body can’t properly process glucose, have doubled in recent years, and nearly 9% of the global population now has the condition. 

But just because diabetes is common, it doesn’t mean it isn’t serious: diabetes can leave people blind, needing an amputation, and with a higher risk of heart disease. Treating diabetes accounts for £1 in every £10 spent by the NHS in the UK, and $327 billion a year in the US. So could technology give diabetics a better way of managing their condition?

For a long time, to get their glucose reading, diabetics would have to prick their finger with a needle, squeeze out a drop of blood, and then use a handheld device to assess how much sugar was in it. It’s a far from ideal process – it only gives a snapshot of glucose control, not a long-term view. It has to be repeated several times a day, and it’s tricky and painful to boot. 

Technology aimed at insulin-using diabetics became mainstream a few years back with the arrival of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices. These are small readers that sit on a diabetic’s body, taking their blood sugar levels constantly and relatively unobtrusively. This technology is transforming diabetes control for its users. By giving them a better view of what their blood glucose was doing, CGMs enabled insulin-dependent diabetics to take steps to keep readings in the right range. 

As well as being more convenient, CGM offers a direct pay-off for diabetics’ health too: those with better glucose control are less at risk of developing debilitating and life-threatening complications. 

Now the companies that make these readers are looking to take advantage of broader technology trends to enable diabetics to better manage their condition. 

The systems from Dexcom, one of the largest makers of CGM devices, are “a mix of medical technology with consumer technology”, says its CTO Jake Leach. Whereas once CGMs would send a user’s glucose reading to a separate handheld device, now makers are looking to exploit the potential of wearables and smartphones. Users can get their readings sent over Bluetooth Low Energy to hardware including iOS and Android phones and watches. 

“The smartphone platform really opened up a lot of functionality that is not typical in medical devices,” Leach explains. 

One of the new features enabled by smartphone and mobile app use is remote monitoring. Through the Dexcom app, parents now keep an eye on their children’s glucose levels even when they’re not with them.  

“The parent has the safety blanket of knowing how things are going. They can set up alerts and alarms that can communicate if  there’s an issue that has to be dealt with, so they don’t have to worry as much,” Leach says.

Remote management isn’t only taking place between parents and children – glucose readings are getting social, with the app allowing users to share their readings with a handful of friends and family via smartphone. Remote monitoring users who share their readings with others have lower average glucose readings, less time spent with low glucose, and more in the normal range, says Leach: “The folks that utilise that technology have better glucose control than those that don’t and we kind of attributed it to the fact that they’ve got others helping them manage their diabetes.”

As well as friends and family, CGM users can share their readings with their medical team. Glucose-monitoring apps can give physicians a long-term overview of how their patient’s blood sugar has been doing, and why – whether it’s spiked or fallen due to a new medication or lifestyle change, for example.