Diabetes Symptoms, Diet & News: Google Working on Wearable Tech To Detect Blood Sugar Levels Without Needles

Being a diabetic is not the easiest thing in the world, especially when you have to consider how often you have to draw blood to ensure that your blood sugar level is on the safe side.

To make things easier, Google is currently in the process of helping diabetes patients with the help of their new "needle-free blood draw" technology, as noted in an application published by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

The new tech is said to send an "abrupt surge" of pressurized gas into a barrel that is connected to the skin. This said gas gives off a micro-particle that travels at high speeds and penetrates the skin, where a small amount of blood is sucked up through the negative pressure barrel that will allow users to check their blood sugar levels.

Computer World reported that the device may not be for diabetics only. The patent application is said to include other blood tests, including various qualities like hormone levels, proteins, and enzymes, all of which could factor into different medical conditions.

However, for now, the focus is for diabetics. As the outlet took note, diabetics usually use a small needle called a lancet to pierce the skin and extract a droplet of blood (usually from the finger) to be put in a glucose meter to determine blood sugar levels. The smaller the lancet, the less painful the procedure, but thinner lancets are less likely to pierce the skin properly.

Considering the fact that diabetics need to check their blood sugar up to four times a day, using a prick to extract blood can be painful and discourages patients to check their glucose levels as often as they should.

Of course, as PC Mag noted, not all patented technology results in actual products, but Google has been working on a new way of determining patient's blood sugar levels for some time now, first with the help of Smart Contact Lenses, which the company licensed last year to pharmaceutical giant Novartis. In turn, Novartis plans on developing and commercializing special contact lenses to help improve eye care as well as manage diseases similar to that of diabetes.

Other than that, Google is also working on a cloud-based platform to monitor glucose levels.

Tech companies are now being more cautious about health -- Google is not the only one looking to improve lifestyle with their tech. For instance, Apple has partnered with researchers for their own HealthKit platform, while IBM is using its Watson Platform for medical workers to make more improved decisions.