I ran across this on a news channel this morning and couldn't believe my eyes 'no pun intended'!! Could this be real? Will a diabetic be able to just wear contact and have a CGM? I pray this is works.
I read into this a little futher with the Wall Street Journal and this is what was said. (compliments of Rolfe Winkler and Andrew Morse)
On Monday, the two companies said Novartis's Alcon eye-care division would license and commercialize "smart lens" technology designed by Google[x], a development team at the search engine giant. Financial details of the partnership weren't provided.
The smart lenses, which Google unveiled in January, are part of a growing number of wearable technology and software products used to monitor health and fitness. Last month, Google debuted its Google Fit platform to track health metrics, such as sleep and exercise, on devices running its Android mobile operating system.
The lenses contain a tiny sensor that relays data on glucose contained in tears via an equally tiny antenna. In a news release earlier this year, Google described the electronics in the lenses as being "so small they look like bits of glitter" and said the antenna is thinner than human hair.
Novartis Chief Executive Joe Jimenez said the move toward wearable health technology, like the smart lenses, was part of a broader trend to involve patients in managing their own health. Such technology has the potential to lower the cost of managing chronic disease.
"This will be a very important growth area in the future," Mr. Jimenez said in an interview. He added that the smart lens technology had the potential to become a "large revenue stream" for the company.
Monitoring glucose levels through the lenses could prove to be easier and more comprehensive than current techniques, which generally require diabetics to prick their fingers for droplets of blood.
About 382 million people—one in every 19—around the world have diabetes, a class of diseases in which the body is unable to deal with sugar, usually because of inadequate or no production of insulin. In the U.S., more than 29 million people, or 9.3% of the population, suffer from the disease, according to the American Diabetes Association.
Mr. Jimenez said the smart lenses may also be used can also correct vision in a manner similar to the lenses on autofocus cameras.
Novartis hopes to have a prototype available for research-and-development reviews by early 2015.
I am excited to keep up to date with this information to see where it goes.
What are your thoughts?
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