Non-invasive Diabetes Tech: The Never-ending Dream
The invention of a "noninvasive" device that can measure blood glucose for people with diabetes with no need to poke the skin and draw blood has been the dream for decades. After all, why wouldn't people with diabetes (PWDs) flock to a skin patch that can detect blood sugar levels through sweat, or a wrist band that uses radio frequency technology to continuously beam glucose data directly to an app? Numerous companies are pushing forward in this noninvasive continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) space, even in the midst of a pandemic. To date, it's been mostly hype versus hope, as attempts to create those products have fallen flat. The Diabetes Technology Society (DTS) published a scientific analysis on this topic in October 2021, noting "the amount of interest in seeing the development of an accurate [noninvasive glucose sensor] and the amount of hyperbole by companies promising an accurate [product] both far outstrip the amount of publicly avai