Here's a cartesian product description for you: an accurate, non-invasive nonstop glucose monitor that talks to your iPhone, and will call someone if the CGM alarms and you don't respond. Sounds like something you might sustain heard about in our annual DiabetesMine Design Contend, isn't it? Well, guess again! Information technology's a product really under yield away the folks at C8 MediSensors, a San Jose-based keep company. If you'rhenium wondering wherefore you've ne'er detected of them, C8 MediSensors has been in "stealth mode" since 2003, working on a device that monitors blood glucose using a sensor that never punctures the skin.

Sounds too good to be true, we have sex. But subsequently a conversation with Doug Raymond, Vice President of Selling and Sales, we'Re truly optimistic.

The twist, called the HG1-c (which we hold is NOT a very catchy identify), is a small unit weighing 5 ounces that fits in the palm of your hand. It's worn along a belt around the shank. Rather than puncturing the skin, the sensor sits close against the skin, and fine drop of gelatin helps to Navy SEAL any air gaps.

The technology bum the HG1-c is complex, but in a nutshell: a special camera, called a raman spectrometer, inside the sensor uses light to key out and analyze glucose molecules under the skin, via interstitial fluid. Each glucose molecule has a special "key signature" the sensor identifies, and from there, analyzes and extrapolates a glucose value, which is transmitted via Bluetooth to a handheld device, like an iPhone or Android, or to a electronic computer.

Here's an overview video that C8 MediSensors mutual at the recent EASD conference in Portugal:

Before we cause into the nitty-gritty details of why this device is so composed, we take over to make clear that it is non approved for use yet, not even in Europe. It's still an "investigational" device, and hopefully testament receive the European CE Pit afterward this fall. Once that happens, C8 MediSensors plans to utilize with the FDA. So, needless to say, this is merely a coup d'oeil into the future… simply a pretty freakin' cool future.

The HG1-c is confusable to other current CGMs therein it reads interstitial fluid, so it has the Saami put away-time, only it is different in several crucial ways. Here's what we like about it:

– It doesn't postulate calibration or warm-up. Because the sensor is reading glucose molecules, it's pre-calibrated in the laboratory. All glucose molecules are the same, regardless whose body you'atomic number 75 talking about, so it doesn't need warm-up time to adjust to your specific body, "much like you wouldn't calibrate a digital thermometer that you bought from the store," according to Doug.

As for truth, clinical data so removed shows that the HG1-c is on par with DexCom and Medtronic, and mayhap even a trifle major… "We run in the middle of fingerstick truth," Doug says.

– It doesn't need to comprise changed. With handed-down CGMs, the sensors need to be replaced every a couple of days. But this sensor, which resides outside the body, can be reused time and time again. "The body continually coats an home sensor with enzymes and that changes its operation," Doug says, which is also why internal sensors need constant Ra-calibration. "The chemical reaction in those sensors gets softened and eventually becomes unable."

– IT's an totally-in-unmatched device. In traditional CGMs, the sensor transmits information to a device for analysis, which then displays the glucose reading. With the HG1-c, all of the monitoring and calculations are inside the sensor. Then readings are transmitted to a display device, the like a smartphone or a computer. Patients will need their own presentation gimmick, because C8 MediSensors doesn't provide one. This sounds unusual at firstly — No elbow room to actually know what the sensor is doing? — but Doug says it's intentional:

"We feel that a shell out of people have five or sestet devices that they have to carry around. By sending the information to an app that runs on an iPhone, it simplifies their life sentence. They give birth both a phone and their glucose readings."

"One of the things we felt very powerfully more or less is that this has to be painless, continuous, discreet and non-interfering. For instance, in an environment when the customer is in a business merging, they rear monitor their phone. Nary one knows what they're doing."

Less devices to deal with? Yes, please!

This also means that you can walk away from your ring — or in the unfortunate event that it dies — and you don't lose your glucose readings. The sensor holds up to 120 years readings, and will upload as soon as it reconnects to whatever display device you're using. Your phone will also act as the alarm system, allowing you to customize the type of consternation and the volume, which is perfect for those of us who can snooze through an earthquake.

– It talks to parents (or spouses, doctors, 911…). "If you don't respond to a low level alarm, a textbook message OR a pre-recorded call will be sent," Doug explains. "That's the beauty of having the phone as the display device. We think this is bad exciting." Plus, the GPS in your phone can in reality tell the paramedics where to find you.

For parents, we think this testament be a life-saver. Bluetooth technology can send data capable 600 feet away, so parents can keep the display device in their room at Night. Or they can set the house phone to encircle if the child is low and doesn't answer. A protagonist Beaver State family member john also be notified by phone if an alarm receives no response, which can glucinium a life-saver for college students or children happening sleep-overs.

But as with any new device, there are potential pitfalls:

– It has a very short battery life. These things eat batteries for breakfast. If you had the sensor monitoring every 3 minutes, the battery would be dead in 10 hours. Monitoring every 10 proceedings? 20 hours' battery life. Every 15 proceedings? 30 hours. A DexCom Beaver State Medtronic CGM monitors blood sugar all 5 minutes, and has an average shelling life of several days. C8 MediSensors sends customers two batteries, but what if you left one at home to charge and then were out and about longer than hoped-for? Not good.

– Information technology is awkwardly tattered. This more conjecture than actual experience. But a fanny pack belt worn under the shirt? A runty weird and uncomfortable in my reserve. Information technology's four inches wide, and Doug swears IT is easy, saying that he's worn IT with zero disquiet in the least. Still… in terms of "non-trespassing" I'm not secure this fits the bill…

Doug adds that they're stillness small-tuning the belt, hoping to make it smaller away the time it launches, and that there Crataegus laevigata be an option to fall apart it on the thigh too.

– Nobelium data analytic thinking software. At the time of launch, C8 MediSensors doesn't plan on having any additive tools to psychoanalyze trends. "We're going produce and supply an application with the twist that wish allow users to display 120 days of glucose measurements on their phone," Doug says. But additional tools for analyzing trends will have to be developed away a third-party — maybe even a capable long-suffering, Doug suggests!

– It's an expensive high-front investment. It comes with a $4,000 price-tag. But reported to Doug, it's still a great time value because thither are no on-going supplies to buy in. Remember, the sensor is reusable! And since most indemnity carriers now cover CGM systems, it could easy be covered. If you don't stimulate insurance, OR if this doesn't get coverage straight off, you mightiness want to pop saving right away… The alone expendable used is the bottle of gel for the camera, which costs about $8 and lasts for a year.

We are very excited about this recently-and-improved version of the CGM, because we love the vision and think that this company may at long last whirl the encipher on non-trespassing monitoring that works.

Doug speculates that because the HG1-c doesn't deflate the scrape, it might get across the FDA faster. But with its reliance on tune technology for usability, there could unmoving be disinclination from the FDA. Doug says the fact that the sensor doesn't rely connected a call up for data calculations could be a boon, merely with the FDA, in that respect truly is no relation… cross your pocked fingers, our PWD Friends.