For healthcare start-ups, the race is on.
These small companies are competing to launch an approved, non-invasive (and pain-free) glucose meter for the growing diabetes population. While each company etches out its own value proposition and aims for a commercial launch, we can take a look at what the devices with the potential for success have in common.
Many of the start-ups in this space use spectroscopy, ultrasound or some form of light-sensing technology in order to measure glucose levels. The devices themselves will most likely clip on to a patient’s ear to make them portable and accessible.
Given the technological advances in the last few decades, information is widely available and literally at our fingertips. A potential glucose meter targeted for success would then need to fit into this environment, providing patients with up-to-date medical information. Patients will want to be able to see, categorize and manipulate progress, and that goes for monitoring glucose levels as well. Integrity Application‘s GlucoTrack, for example, aims to satisfy this need. The GlucoTrack stores up to a thousand readings and patients can look at a particular date or range of dates. The device recently earned a CE Mark and will launch in Europe in 2014. CEO Avner Gal said depending on the FDA process, the device could be on the U.S. market in two years time.
Glucometers in general are likely to be portable for ease of use, and thus, may resemble an iPod in shape and/or size.
Many of the glucometers may need to be re-calibrated or replaced, adding extra monthly costs. However, the actual reading time-that is, the time the device takes to read glucose levels-is less than a minute. Grove Instruments’ version of the glucose meter reading time is less than 20 seconds. Socrates Health Solutions, another company, has its own glucometer, the Companion, which CEO Scott Smith said offers a reading in about 2.5 seconds.
The price for a non-invasive, pain-free glucometer reading might be a little much at first. The GlucoTrack, for example, costs about $2,000. As with all technology though, as new models are created and more efficient ways of measuring glucose levels are discovered, the price is likely to go down.
For more information on non-invasive glucometers, click here.
The above content was derived from: http://medcitynews.com/2013/10/will-first-noninvasive-bloodless-glucometers-look-like-theyll-probably-clip-ear/.
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