Dec. 7, 1999
Some of this country's 16-million diabetics may soon be able to look at a wrist watch and monitor blood sugar levels without any needles. The reaction from Type One Utah diabetics is overwhelming.
Science Specialist Ed Yeates has more on the story.
After successful clinical trials, advisors to the Food and Drug Administration have now given the green light, recommending the FDA approved the device for marketing.
At the Salt Lake Clinic, George Potter comes in for another routine check for his diabetes. He's had the disease since he was 13 years old, and has been sticking his fingers with needles for the past 63 years, to test blood sugar levels.
Jamie Lynn Brown has been doing the same, six times per day, for the past 25 years. Her colleague Jan Michelle Quigley has been testing for 30 years.
No wonder then - a wristwatch which could do it all with NO needles is what they've been waiting for.
Jamie Lynn Brown: "It will just be very nice not to have to prick your finger. It will be less time consuming, better control, everything!"
Jan Michelle Quigley: "Instead of poking our fingers four to six times per day, we can just look at a watch, see what the blood sugar is, or press a button or give an injection."
The patient wears GlucoWatch just like a regular wristwatch. It use a little cartridge on the back which sends tiny electric cucrrents through the skin to measure glucose levels every 20 minutes. If blood sugar reaches dangerous levels on either side of the scale, the watch sounds an alarm.
James Grua, M.D. / Endocrinologist, Salt Lake Clinic: "The back of the cartridge has a little gel which makes contact with the skin and it will send small voltage through that and suck out some fluid through the skin called interstitial fluid. This is just like thin water. And then it will use a little reaction there to have a chemical reaction that is converted into electrical current that the watch reads."
Dr. James Grua says the watch not only monitors but someday might actually be hooked up to an insulin delivery system, like a pump. George, Jamie and Jan currently use insulin delivery pumps.
If the FDA accepts its committee recommendations, the watch would be marketed within the next six months at a cost of $250. The cartridges for the back of the watch would run $4.50 each. A cartridge lasts about 12 hours.
More Information:
