iABEETUS
Posted on 04/17/2017 3:12:19 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Dive Brief:
•Apple has hired a team of biomedical engineers to develop noninvasive sensors that can monitor blood sugar and help diabetics manage their disease, CNBC reports, citing three unnamed sources.
•The tech giant's secretive team, based in Palo Alto, CA, is part of an initiative first imagined by the late Steve Jobs (Apple’s founder).
•If successful, the effort could create a whole new market for devices like the Apple watch.
Dive Insight:
Apple is already running feasibility trials at Bay Area clinical sites and has engaged consultants to help the company navigate the regulatory requirements for medical devices, the sources told CNBC.
The tech giant and the FDA have been discussing a range of issues including the 510(k) process and the App Store review process for at least three years. The talks, which also alluded to three regulated medical devices Apple is developing, came to light in emails obtained by MobiHealthNews in November via a Freedom of Information Act request.
Since the launch of ResearchKit, HealthKit and CareKit, the Cupertino, CA, company has been hinting at a larger role in the healthcare arena. In August 2016, Apple confirmed the purchase of personal health record startup Gliimpse.
The company also beefed up its health team with hires such as Duke University physician and mobile strategy director Ricky Bloomfield, who helped to implement HealthKit and ResearchKit, and physician Mike Evans, who previously served as chief of digital preventive medicine at Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute in Toronto.
During 2016, Apple also introduced two new health apps for Apple devices—AirStrip, which allows doctors to check appointment schedules on an Apple Watch and get feedback on patient diagnoses, and 3D4Medical, a portfolio of 3D anatomical images for doctors.
Apple isn’t the only tech giant vying for a piece of the healthcare pie. In recent months, IBM Watson Health has announced major initiatives including a partnership with Best Doctors to add Watson’s cancer suite to employee benefits packages and a link-up of IBM’s PowerAI deep learning software toolkit with NVIDIA’s NVLink interconnect technology. The latter is already being used to improve diagnoses and care plans by sifting through patient data.
In addition, Microsoft is expanding its healthcare footprint via its analytics capabilities, teaming with Twist BioSciences on DNA digital data storage and with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to create innovative care delivery products, among other initiatives.
Apples raise the blood sugar.
I can understand dedicated health monitoring appliances, but there will be a lot of hurdles if these are going to be apps installed anywhere. Because they have to be tested in the deployment configuration. This requirement is so rigid that computers that are the basis of healthcare equipment cannot even be antivirused.
An apple a day was supposed to keep the doctor away, but now they probably want the doctor prescribing Apples.
Will they ever develop a vaccine for type2 diabetes?
Probably not, because that would be a financial blow to the pharmaceutical industry from which it will not recover.
Type 2 diabetes is truly the MOAD (mother of all diseases)
As the mother of two children with Type 1, I couldn't disagree with you more.
Having spent the past 2 years observing the devistation occurring in my son’s family after my grandson’s diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes, I must disagree with you.
Interesting. Jobs died of Pancreatic cancer.
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From what I have read, it is more likely a non-invasive, non-puncture blood glucose testing system tied into the iOS ecosystem.
Who needs a vaccine? Just change to a low carb diet and it simply goes away. This is the stupidest self-inflicted disease in history - and we're letting it bankrupt our entire health-care system because we aren't willing to demand behavior modification from patients nor stand up to those entities who are profiting from it.
navigate the regulatory requirements for medical devices, the sources told CNBC.
The "regulatory requirements" are, as usual, really infuriating if you could really benefit from medical progress.
The X Prize “TriCorder” competition to develop a small (smart phone-like) device to diagnose as many common medical problems as possible, was just awarded (April 13, 2017) http://tricorder.xprize.org/teams/final-frontier-medical-devices
The winners had a suite of small sensors that could monitor the body, and one was for a non invasive measurement of blood sugar - no needles, no finger stick. They are pursuing FDA approval for it, but the technology works. Markets are developing for individual fitness monitor/activity trackers, that will gradually add features, like smart phones did.
You can get apps for an iphone, that use the existing camera to measure your heart rate. Breathing abnormalities can be diagnosed with the microphone. Other former blood tests, pinprick blood testing devices, and urinalysis capabilities are also coming to smartphone scale devices.
There are a bunch of small devices that are becoming available, and Apple has been strategically/systematically targeting this technology for a long time. They have invested in the infrastructure to tie them together, developing standards, and proliferating software to manage them on iPhones and the iWatch.
Getting FDA approval for their Health Apps and associated medical devices, was the main concern (publicly) raised by Tim Cook when he went to the White House to meet Trump.
So yes, Apple is targeting diabetes - but much more than that - in fact most major or common health concerns. There is a broad suite of medical information and diagnostic capability that is on the cusp of being placed in the hands of the public - like when personal computers brought computing capabilities from the hands of the few, to the many.
Maybe the FDA can develop expedited/simplified requirements for consumer grade screening and monitoring devices, as opposed to formal medical/diagnostic device requirements.
From today’s News (linked on Drudge):
Wearable sweat sensor could help diagnose disease.
“An ultra-sensitive, wearable sweat sensor may improve diagnosis and treatment of cystic fibrosis, diabetes and other conditions, researchers said Monday.
Unlike previous sweat sensors, the new model requires only a trace of moisture to do its job and doesn’t require patients to sit still for 30 minutes while it collects sweat.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/wearable-sweat-sensor-could-help-diagnose-disease-194808894.html
Total BS. There is no ‘managing’ T2 diabetes. It’s reversible if people give a damn to do something about it, but only to a point: Once the damage is done, you’ve one foot in the grave.
What other motivation do people need to change their damned lifestyles and stop trusting their doctors?
Believe me, it is not as easy as you have been made to believe.
OK, I LOL'd
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