Tim Cook Wears Blood Sugar Monitor Connected To Watch, Reiterates Apple’s Commitment To Health Space

Apple CEO Tim Cook was seen around the tech giant’s campus wearing a glucose tracker prototype. The blood sugar monitor was connected to his Apple watch. The report confirms a news in early April that Apple is developing an Apple Watch-oriented solution to diagnose and manage diabetes.

Although the device is connected to Cook’s Apple Watch, it is a separate independent unit which communicates over Bluetooth to the timepiece instead of being a feature integrated inside the watch, 9TO5Mac reports. However, the glucose tracker physically attaches to the watch chassis which extends its capabilities.

Although Cook had reiterated Apple’s commitment to health space when he visited the University of Glasgow, it is not clear yet if the prototype glucose tracker he uses is made by Apple of a third-party company. It gave rise to speculation if Apple would manufacture a blood sugar monitor as an add-on accessory. Apple has been researching into diabetes treatment with a team in Palo Alto working on a non-invasive and continuous glucose monitoring, CNBC reports.

At the university when Cook received an honorary degree, the Apple CEO said he has been wearing the glucose tracker for a few weeks, but he took it off before he flew to Glasgow. The device helped him understand how his body responded to the food he ate. To keep his blood sugar level more constant, Cook says he made some modification to his food intake.

Cook notes that pricking one’s finger several times a day to check glucose level is mentally anguishing. Even for non-diabetics, a glucose tracker could provide the wearer of the device constant knowledge of what they are eating and could adjust their diet before they acquire diabetes which afflicts millions of Americans.

Present models of continuous glucose trackers need a small sensor worn under the skin to monitor blood sugar levels. The monitoring solution that a team of biomedical engineers is developing would not require and under-skin sensor, MacRumors reports.