Big mobile firms to bring health apps to wearables

SAN FRANCISCO—For decades, medical technology firms have searched for ways to let diabetics check blood sugar easily, with scant success. Now, the world’s largest mobile technology firms are getting in on the act.

Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. and Google Inc., searching for applications that could turn nascent wearable technology like smartwatches and bracelets from curiosities into must- have items, have all set their sights on monitoring blood sugar, several people familiar with the plans say.

These firms are variously hiring medical scientists and engineers, asking US regulators about oversight and developing glucose-measuring features in future wearable devices, the sources said.

The first round of technology may be limited, but eventually the compa- nies could compete in a global bloodsugar tracking market worth over $12 billion by 2017, according to research firm GlobalData.

Diabetes afflicts 29 million Americans and costs the economy some $245 billion in 2012, a 41-percent rise in five years. Many diabetics prick their fingers as much as 10 times daily in order to check levels of glucose, a type of sugar.

Noninvasive technology could take many forms. Electricity or ultrasound could pull glucose through the skin for measurement, for instance, or a light could be shined through the skin so that a spectroscope could measure for indications of glucose.

“All the biggies want glucose on their phone,” said John Smith, former chief scientific officer of Johnson & Johnson’s LifeScan, which makes blood glucose monitoring supplies.