Sumbul Desai, Apple’s vice president of health, recently spoke with the Indian daily Businessline about the company’s health ambitions and provided a brief overview of Apple’s position on glucose monitoring for the Apple Watch.
Desai said these capabilities are “very important areas, but they require a lot of science behind them” when asked if Apple would add blood sugar measuring sensors to the Apple Watch.
Her remarks came shortly after Mark Gurman of Bloomberg claimed Apple had achieved a significant milestone with their noninvasive blood glucose monitoring technology. Apple has developed this feature for at least ten years and has a workable “proof-of-concept” model.
Noninvasive blood glucose monitoring uses a laser to emit light under the skin to measure the body’s glucose concentration. Apple needs to concentrate on making the hardware smaller so that it can fit in a gadget the size of the Apple Watch now that it has a working prototype. Although progress is being made, Gurman thinks it will be years before Apple adds noninvasive blood glucose monitoring to the Apple Watch.
Desai added that she thinks health technology is only getting started and will lead to patient and physician behavior changes. According to her, Apple focuses on “the customer as the individual” and how it can “empower an individual to be holistic about their health” by offering useful information.
Apple’s health team is “laser-focused” on advancing in the healthcare industry by investing in research, working with the medical profession, and exploring other opportunities to “understand your health sooner and earlier.” Apple wants consumers to “feel educated and in control of their health care.”
The whole interview can be found at Businessline. Other subjects discussed included Apple’s position on health privacy, the price of Apple devices, how decisions are made on what to focus on, and more.