Apple has named a new leader for its team working on a non-invasive glucose monitor, having a veteran Mac and iPhone chip executive head up one of the company’s most ambitious health technology efforts.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
Tim Millet, Apple’s vice president of platform architecture, has taken charge of the project after it was left without a dedicated head for several months, according to people with knowledge of the change, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. The team leading the work, called the Exploratory Design Group, or XDG, was previously led by scientist Bill Athas, who died at the end of last year.
After Athas’ death, the group was overseen on an ad-hoc basis by his former deputies, who were elevated to report directly to Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies. The glucose-tracking team now reports to Millet, who has been one of Srouji’s top two lieutenants for a decade and an Apple employee for about 19 years.
The group working on the glucose tracker resides within Apple’s semiconductor organization because the system relies on an advanced chip-based system. It uses a range of sensors to shoot lasers into the skin and determine how much glucose is present in a person’s body. Combined with artificial intelligence algorithms, the chip can then determine a person’s blood sugar.
MacDailyNews Take: Initially envisioned by the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Apple engineers were tasked with developing sensors that can non-invasively and continuously monitor blood sugar levels to better treat diabetes. Before his death, Jobs envisioned wearable devices, like smartwatches, being used to monitor important vitals, such as oxygen levels, heart rate, and blood glucose, as Christina Farr reported for CNBC back in 2017.
If achieved, Apple Watch would become the essential device for hundreds of millions of people with diabetes. Non-invasive continuous glucose monitoring would indeed be the holy grail for treating diabetes. – MacDailyNews, April 12, 2017
Not to bury the lede, but our little birdie says:
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As a T2D I hope it comes soon. My fingers need a break!
Dexcom, buddy! But it’s pricey with no insurance
I thought there is currently a law suit with Withings (?) regarding use of patented intellectual property regarding the technology of noninvasive blood sugar measurement.
I seem to have been reading about this almost as long as the Apple car.