With all the wearable technology plugging into healthcare, Google surprises us again by announcing its collaboration with Novartis, a pharmaceutical company, to develop smart contact lenses that help patients manage diabetes.
Approximately 10% of the US population suffers from diabetes. Regardless of the disease stage, constant monitoring of blood glucose level is required for all. Currently, two methods exist to help patients with blood glucose monitoring. One involves pricking a clean fingertip with a special needle to get a drop of blood, which is then carefully put on a test strip, before the monitor reads you the result on the screen. A newer monitoring system, called continuous glucose monitoring (CGM), uses a tiny sensor inserted under the skin to check glucose levels in tissue fluid. The sensor needs to be replaced weekly. The information of a patient’s glucose level is then sent to a pager-like wireless monitor. Because current approved CGMs are not as accurate as the conventional monitors, patients often need to confirm glucose levels by using the pricking fingertip method. As many people say that managing their diabetes is like having a part-time job, the most challenging part of the job is to always remember to monitor and check their blood glucose level. As a result, many people with diabetes check their blood glucose less than they should, leading to serious consequences.
Thus, the Google contact lens could be a life-changing experience for patients with diabetes. The technology used in the Google contact lens promises to provide a less time-consuming and pain-free alternative to measure and monitor glucose levels. The smart contact lens consists of a wireless chip and a glucose sensor embedded between two layers of contact lens material. The lens can measure diabetic sugar levels directly from tear fluid on the surface of the eyeball. The system is continuously sending data to a mobile/wearable device to keep users informed. Since Google’s original announcement in 2014, a small team of engineers and scientists have been working on refining prototypes of the lens in Google’s semi-secret research and development facility called Google X, which is operated as a subsidiary of Alphabet. Earlier this year, the embedded chip technology used in their contact lens was granted a patent filed in 2012, and more patents that seem to be related to the lens are currently pending for approval.
Many questions about the lens will remain unanswered until clinical trials on humans are conducted. However, the outlook is bright with another smart lens that was mentioned with a footnote in the original Google contact lens announcement, beginning its human clinical trial in 2016 and likely to be ready to launch first. This presbyopia lens will help people who can no longer read without glasses and auto-focus on near objects, providing an accommodative vision correction. The excitement is beyond words and we shall wait and see how this one turns out in the near future.
References:
- http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-topics/Diabetes/continuous-glucose-monitoring/Pages/index.aspx
- http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/07/25/meet-the-google-x-life-sciences-team/
- https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/introducing-our-smart-contact-lens.html
- http://mobihealthnews.com/46600/novartis-ceo-comments-new-patent-shed-light-on-googles-contact-lens-projects
- http://www.webpronews.com/google-was-just-granted-a-patent-for-manufacturing-contact-lenses-2015-03/
Image courtesy of https://googleblog.blogspot.com
Learn more about PreScouter at www.prescouter.com.
