Will Finger Pricks Or Wearing A Sensor Soon Become "so 2020's"? | DiabetesTeam

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Will Finger Pricks Or Wearing A Sensor Soon Become "so 2020's"?
A DiabetesTeam Member asked a question 💭

As Diabetics we tend to hear about advances in Medications and other treatments so it's nice to hear when someone is working on other areas that may make our lives a little easier.

Certainly the introduction of the Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGM's) such as the Dexcom and the Libre are a welcome advance and save many sore fingers, particularly with Insulin and Sulfonylurea users, but it still must be applied, only lasts a couple weeks, can get caught on clothing or ripped off if you whack into… read more

posted February 5, 2022
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A DiabetesTeam Member

I see wearing a device like the fitbit that you can just press a button to check your blood glucose.

posted February 5, 2022
A DiabetesTeam Member

I know that the oxygen monitors are able to read oxygen levels in the blood when you apply such a device on a finger, which has a red light reading the values while it goes by. It also tells you the heart rate as it sense the pulsation with said light. Often as nurses we used a finger oxygen monitor when we had difficulty feeling a pulse, or if the pulse was too fast to count, it was a great tool when those came out. If it can sense the pulse and read oxygen levels, it is amazing no one ever though of developing such a device to read blood sugar levels and other values. The reason we poke our finger tips is because the have capilaries (very small vessels) and easier to poke through and get blood, but they also heal faster as they are very small vessels being poked.

When I was a new nurse in late 1980's we used to test sugar level with strips you dipped into the urine which were color codedand it gave you a certain color was in between a certain values, it was not accurate at all back then, there was no such thing as priking a finger back then, the only way to get a blood sample was to take samples from a vein and sending to a lab, and back then lab results were reserved for difficult to manage sugar levels or someone in DKA.

So why not develop something which would read throught the skin and measure the blood sugar value. Oh and as for fit trackers, they are not as accuarte when it comes to temperature readings nor blood pressure, as the are worn like a watch and are nowhere above an artery to sense it properly, but over time who knows, when I graduated we had glass thermomethers taking 5 minutes to get a reading and now it take a few seconds. BP machines were attached to a wall and you required a stethoscope to take blood pressure, now they have automated blood pressure monirots, just like now we have glucose meters at home rather then testing urine. So yeah I can see this coming our way eventually. I know in UK I believe they are testing a device the doctors put under your skin on your arm and some last 3 months to 6 months and you just scan over the site of insertion, but a doctor has to insert it with an injection in their office. Who knows what our future brings. As a new nurse we had no machine for IV's or for medications, some we had to push manually slowly, we had to count drops from the dripper for IV rates, so yeah a lot changed in the medical field.

posted February 5, 2022
A DiabetesTeam Member

iWristwatch with SOS function is older version was C$600, I have it as a fall detection device. It has all these sensors, not BG. There are lasers at the back. I am sure Apple is interested and invested in this market.😉

posted February 6, 2022
A DiabetesTeam Member

Actually that would be amazing. Perhaps an invention of a fitbit type device that tells you everything , your blood sugars, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, temperature or what ever else was needed.

posted February 5, 2022
A DiabetesTeam Member

That’s so cool technology has come such a long way

posted February 5, 2022

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