A different kind of google glass - contact lens that detects glucose for diabetics

Google X is a "moonshot" group of experimental projects Google is exploring. A recent news story about one of these projects is hitting the media called Google Contact Lens. The premise behind this is one of the holy grails of diabetes research, finding a "pin-prick-less" way to test for glucose levels. I did a study of the various devices under-going development and the history is a bitter one of trial and error, fraud and failure. To my knowledge, there is no FDA approved device yet that can do this. I will set up an email alert for more news about this in the future. CBC technology coverage is great. Here is some info from our working paper on a mobile solution for self-management of diabetes:

A non-invasive technique capable of measuring blood glucose concentration with accuracy equal to or better than the current chemical glucose meters may improve compliance for glucose monitoring. ⁵³ Considerable efforts have been made by several scientific research groups and organizations in the past few decades to develop non-invasive blood glucose monitors.  Diverse optical approaches have been proposed to achieve this objective. These approaches include polarimetry, Raman spectroscopy, near-infrared (NIR), absorption and scattering and photoacoustics. These techniques appear to be promising, but have limitations associated with low sensitivity, accuracy and insufficient specificity of glucose measurements at physiologically relevant levels. ⁵³ Non-invasive continuous Glucose Monitors like GlucoWatch G2 Biographer and Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) which are FDA approved have been found unreliable for detecting hypoglycemia. ⁵⁴ There are non-invasive solutions available in Canada for measuring blood glucose level by BioSign Technologies’ UFIT Care. ²⁵ However, this product is yet to be approved by Health Canada and therefore, cannot be used.

And various references to the above:

23. Medgadget. MedGadget Web site.

http://www.medgadget.com. Published 2009. Updated 2009. Accessed november 2009.

24. Pain-free precision: Clinical trial reveals new option for blood sugar testing. . 2002;1 No 2.

25. Biosign Technologies Inc: Online Health Monitoring, Getting the Numbers Right Fact Sheet. http://www.biosign.com/Web_Files/factsheet_biosign.pdf. Updated 2009november 2009.

53. Kirill V, Mohsen S, Montamedi M, Esenaliev R. Noninvasive Blood Glucose Monitoring With Optical Coherence Tomography. Diabetes Care. 2002;25(12). http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/25/12/2263.abstract.

54. Accuracy of the GlucoWatch G2 Biographer and the Continuous Glucose Monitoring System During Hypoglycemia. Diabetes care. 2004;27(3). http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/27/3/722.abstract.