New fingerprick-free glucose meter takes the “Ouch!” out of diabetes care

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A new device to track blood-glucose levels has been launched in Israel.

Today marks World Diabetes Day, a date chosen in tribute to Dr. Frederick Banting, co-discoverer of insulin, who was born on November 14, 1891.  While the discovery of insulin made survival with diabetes possible, the disease itself continues to spiral out of control around the world.

Every six seconds, a person dies from diabetes, and with 415 million sufferers globally, it will likely become the greatest epidemic in human history.  It’s also one of the most costly, amounting to 12% of annual healthcare expenditures worldwide.  Now, a new device promises to make life easier for people with diabetes by eliminating the need for painful daily blood tests.

One of the greatest challenges in managing diabetes is compliance.  Patients must track their own blood glucose (blood sugar) levels, and the use of standard glucose meters require multiple fingerpricks each day.  Despite the urgent medical importance of tracking this information, the pain and the inconvenience discourage many individuals from keeping close tabs on blood glucose, which is crucial to adjusting diet, insulin and other medication use.

Without accurate tracking, poorly-controlled diabetes can easily lead to heart attacks, strokes, blindness, and reduced blood flow, leading to serious limb infections and ultimately amputation. Very low blood glucose can also cause confusion, loss of consciousness and seizures.

For years, researchers have been trying to find a non-invasive way to detect blood glucose levels – sparing the need for multiple fingerpricks and making the process quicker and easier.  Now, Israeli startup Cnoga Medical has created a groundbreaking glucometer, already approved for use in numerous countries worldwide, which allows patients to track blood glucose levels without pricking or pain. The small device uses a camera to provide optical diagnosis of blood glucose level by observing changing color shades of the user’s finger.

The new device offers accurate, non-invasive blood-glucose results that are comparable to those of a fingerprick.  Following a short “training” period, in which the device learns to correlate the user’s optical skin-tone characteristics with camera readings, the device operates quickly, accurately, making tracking and compliance easier patients living with diabetes.

Cnoga was founded by entrepreneur Dr. Joseph Segman, a PhD in mathematics, whose previous startup, Oplus Technologies, sold to Intel for about $100 million. Oplus developed and manufactured processors that serve as the “brain” of digital display devices, such as flat panel plasma televisions. Later, Segman has brought his entrepreneurial spirit to the medical world. The experience acquired in Oplus facilitated a decade-long research and development resulting in Cnoga’s device.

The principle of operation is as follows: An array of light-emitting-diodes (LED) shines light in wavelengths from visual to infrared through the fingertip. As the light waves pass through the fingertip, some of it is absorbed and the reflected light signal is changed. A camera sensor detects the changes in the light signal in real time. Using patented algorithms and a vast amount of data, the device analyses the correlation between the signal and bio parameters to yield the glucose level in the blood.

.Cnoga’s approach is part of a global trend of personalized medicine and telemedicine. The device is a great promise for a better quality of life to diabetes patients everywhere.