A new fitness tracker tech that eliminates the need for needle sticks in blood sugar testing is currently in the final stages of testing.
The device is called Helo. It pairs with a smartphone app. It’s been around for awhile and can measure blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, and count your daily steps.
Instead of a needle that takes a blood sample that the user puts on a test strip and then into a meter, this device uses photoplethysmogram (PPG), which uses a pulse oximeter that illuminates the skin and measures changes in light absorption. The information is then sent to this Android app that you can check with your phone.
The band is expected to cost under $300. The tests are going well enough that the company expects to make the glucose measurement feature available to the general public by the end of this year.
This technology was developed by Heka, which is also testing other non-invasive glucose monitoring devices that can be controlled with either an Android or iPhone app. They’re accepting applications for the trials at this web address: http://www.hekacorp.com/homepage-app-3/.