Glucosense - no more finger pricks?

As a person with T1D, or as a parent of a little one with T1D:
- what if you didn't have to do any more finger prick tests?
- what if you didn't have to rely on inserting a CGM every week?

That would make me feel pretty good for sure and I'm sure Janki would agree...

University of Leeds / Glucosense

So here's a possible solution that's been getting a lot of news coverage today, on the back of the granting of a European-wide patent to Glucosense, who, partnering with the University of Leeds, have developed a low-power laser solution, relying on some very clever (and very thin) glass:

There's obviously a way to go before a commercial product appears (let alone a portable or continuous monitoring device), but the company are suggesting a device should be available within three years. That puts it on the same kind of time-frame as Google's glucose measuring contact lens. Whereas Google's system appears to measure glucose levels in the tears, Glucosense looks like it's picking up its signal from the blood plasma itself. This could be an important differential between this technology and Google's (and all current CGMs, measuring levels in the interstitial fluid).

http://netscientific.net/files/download/52

As the parent of a Medtronic pump user, this is the kind of potentially game-changing technology that I don't want to potentially be left out from because Medtronic insist on doing "everything" in-house (yes, they are right, that does bring some potential benefits). In my mind (and my humble opinion), this is another reminder of the urgent need for standardisation - both of performance standards (e.g. MARD in this case) and protocols (e.g. communication and packet protocols) - so that you - or an artificial pancreas device manufacturer - can take the pump and the CGM you want and get the best available system for you or your little one.

Of course, this isn't the first time an optical approach has been taken to glucose management (e.g. here), but I think this is a completely non-invasive solution.

And as a physicist, I'm delighted to see some fabulous science behind this one (it also reminds me to my time in the optics labs at uni, so the rose-tinted specs - or laser safety googles are well and truly on!) and I hope it's the kind of thing that will remind the likes of the JDRF and others that a solution (if not a cure) to optimising care of people with T1D will require input from all of the scientific disciplines and not just the groovy bio-genetics stuff :-)

You can find more details on the Glucosense system on their website and here for example.