Apple Hires Chief Medical Officer From Pulse Oximetry Company Masimo, Possibly for iWatch Team

I work at Masimo

TMay said:

My guess is that the "iWatch" will be usable standalone, but better paired with an iDevice (more data acquisition, display). The "iWatch" could probably read pulse off of the wrist, but a pulse oximeter would have to read it off a finger tip, so I would expect a blue tooth LE connection.

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A fingertip is not the only place an oximetry sensor can be placed to obtain valid SpO2 readings. The trick will be obtaining an oximetry algorithm which can read through motion accurately. Sure would be nice to see Masimo rainbowSET capability also introduced into an "iWatch" form factor! I'd buy that in a heartbeat...no pun intended.

peterdevries said:

I would say about 5-8 years before small scale market entry with an accuracy compliant to FDA and EMA regulations. Not earlier.

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Many have been in the race to achieve non-invasive glucose readings for a long time. It is the holy grail of non-invasive monitoring and will be a major breakthrough in medical technology when announced. There are some companies closer to achieving this than others and I would strongly doubt Apple would start from scratch considering non-invasive monitoring companies have already begun working towards this achievement. I may be biased because I work at Masimo Corporation, however I wouldn't put it past Apple to try and license the best monitoring technology already in the market rather than start from scratch. I for one would certainly love to see Masimo technology in a wearable Apple device...I think that would be awesome!

Tim Cook didn't want to demo the Apple Watch heart rate sensor on ABC World News because "it's got a few secretive things still on there." I wonder if an Oximetry or blood glucose sensor made it into the watch. Hmm...