French health tech company PKvitality has its eyes on a 2024 launch for its glucose tracking watch.
That’s according to a new press release from the company, which reveals success in clinical trials of its wrist-worn continuous glucose monitor.
In its third round of human trials, PKvitality’s K’Watch achieved a 16% margin for error (MARD) when tracking glucose in type 1 and type 2 diabetic patients.
There’s clearly some way to go in order to reach the levels of accuracy needed to get FDA approval – but it's a big step on the way to improving the lives of diabetics.
We’ve spoken to a number of wearable companies attempting to track glucose non-invasively – including Rockley Photonics and Movano with its RF sensor. And Apple and Fitbit are certainly also working on the technology.
The PKvitality technology does differ slightly, as it’s not fully non-invasive. It uses “micro-tips” on the back of the watch – which are minute needles that painlessly examine the interstitial fluid under the skin.
It will then continuously monitor glucose levels, and provide alerts for high or low levels.
While the company says that wearing the device is totally painless, the solution isn’t quite as simple as tracking via an optical, laser or RF sensor. It would be reserved for diabetics, and require replacing the micro-tips using the disposable K’apsul – which will last 7 days at a time.
While a continuous glucose monitor on the wrist would dramatically improve the lives of diabetics – a solution from Apple, Fitbit or other wearable companies could bring the benefits of glucose tracking to the whole population. These solutions would also work without disposable patches.
But that’s a long road. And it seems that the PKvitality K’Watch could be one of the first wrist wearables for diabetics.
Source: PKVitality Via: Notebook Check
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James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.