Tim Cook is using a Watchbased glucose monitor

Apple boss spotted wearing a previously secret diabetes device

Apple CEO Tim Cook has been spotted by staff at the Palo Alto campus wearing a prototype blood glucose monitor.

Apple has been reportedly working on a device that could help with the management of diabetes, but those reports were based on word of a secret team and a patent application. Now it seems the company’s CEO is being more overt about the project. Sources confirmed to CNBC that: “Cook was wearing a prototype glucose-tracker on the Apple Watch”. The word “on” is clearly significant.

Cook has previously been open about

wearing a blood glucose monitoring device, but it hasn’t been clear whether this was an Apple creation, or one from another manufacturer.

In conversations with a group of students at Glasgow University, Cook very openly said: “I’ve been wearing a continuous glucose monitor for a few weeks, I just took it off before coming on this trip.”

A keen fitness fanatic, Cook has apparently been using the device to monitor how his diet has been affecting his blood sugar. This ties in well with another comment he made to the students: “There is lots of hope out there that if someone has constant knowledge of what they’re eating, they can instantly know what causes the response... and that they can adjust well before they become diabetic.” If the Watch becomes a bona fide medical device, it has to pass US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval before hitting the market; Cook has previously said he would want to avoid this because it would hinder production schedules for the wearable. By being a device for “healthy” people to measure their blood glucose, the Apple Watch might avoid these checks. One possible way Apple could make the Watch a device for diabetics while keeping it out of the FDA approval cycle would be to create an independent device that works together with the Watch. Indeed, Apple previously filed a patent to make a modular strap that might provide this function.