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Apple Watch Likely to Gain Blood Pressure, Blood Glucose, and Blood Alcohol Monitoring

IIGS User said:
The alcohol monitoring via an external device isn't anything new per se. It's been used on probationers for years in combination with a GPS tracker & cellular backhaul to monitor alcohol levels for over a decade now. It uses sweat to calculate BAC. It's absolutely doable in a watch sized device.

I think it's a bad idea, from a legal and PR standpoint.

From a health standpoint? It's Meh for me. I don't drink, and I don't use any mind or mood altering drugs.

If you think you've had too much to drink, you have. Stop. Don't operate anything that could cause harm to others. Get home safely and stay there until you sober up.

The equipment renders measurements on par with the accuracy of a PBT. I've seen it used in the real world. I don't know about it being on a optional watch you can remove. I think it gets left out of the production model if it was being tested.
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PBT? Pabst Blue Tracker?
 
mannyvel said:
BP without a cuff would be pretty radical. Continuous BP would be really interesting, medically speaking. Today medicine can't use it, because docs don't really understand what to do with data.

But huge longitudinal studies with continuous monitoring could lead to great things. Eat, and you can see the impact on your glucose and BP immediately. Over time, you could show the potential harm/gain of what you eat.

Data telemetry is already being used for monitoring in drug trials. This stuff would provide more signals, for both compliance and side-effects.
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This ability will lead to breakthroughs in medicine. Even if the devices aren’t at the accuracy of lab equipment, if they are repeatable and can show basic trends this is already an advance. If they are repeatable then they could possibly give correlative data when matched with lab equipment during a physical exam. (My hypothesis here being that the lack of exact data out of the box is not due to the device but the difference in each individual from the next.)
 
The Mercurian said:
Also wondering this. If anything this seems harder than glucose/alcohol levels.
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Would be amazing. I only just discovered that I had high blood pressure, thought I was having anxiety attacks etc due to work stress - pretty scary stuff! I bought a pressure monitor off Amazon, but would be amazing to get a few readings on my wrist each day.
 
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BACtrack, maker of police-style breathalyzers, won a government grant for their tech that allows continuous monitoring of BAC through the skin. One of the versions of the device is an Apple Watch add-on. Right now they're awaiting government approval on it but it is available to education institution for experiments.

BACtrack-Skyn-Apple_Watch_band_-_2017.png
 
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UBS28 said:
Well, police officer, my Apple Watch said my alcohol level is fine ......
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If the watch can truly be made to read blood alcohol with reasonably good accuracy, it becomes a compelling argument in court. Both in favor or against the watch wearer. Court could subpoena your iCloud/ watch data and history. Breathalyzer tests are only about 65% accurate and it’s often not possible to get blood tests done at the proper time to show accurate blood alcohol levels. Of course, an officer witnessing someone as impaired is the most compelling evidence, especially if they have you on video.

No, I’m not advocating the watch having an alcohol sensor as a means for alcoholics to bolster their addiction. On the contrary, I see practical applications and potential safety applications. With the number of newer cars now incorporating Bluetooth/ NFC in our phones for car key purposes, what if that can be tied to the watch’s sensor management? Watch will detect high blood alcohol and then your watch and phone will give you the “Significant blood alcohol content detected. Car key disabled. Enter passcode to override...”, subsequent warning, etc..

I don’t know, maybe I’m overthinking this or missing something. I’ll have an occasional beer with friends, but I’m not really a drinker.
 
Sure the Apple Watch will come out with a bunch of technologies no one has and average people never need. Sure it will.
 
chucker23n1 said:
Nemaura:

So, 1) no peer review, 2) sample group of just 25 (apparently no one without diabetes was invited at all?), 3) deviations of about 30% in about 90% of the cases.

Diamontech:

"A total of 59 healthy persons and 41 diabetics between the age of 18 to over 70 years participated in the study. The participants were asked to attend the measurement fasting, with a low blood glucose level. During the test period, blood glucose was increased with a glucose-containing drink for healthy volunteers. For diabetes patients, the usual increase in blood glucose after a meal was used. This ensured that measurement results were available for both, low and high blood glucose levels. DiaMonTech's non-invasive measurement delivered accurate measurements over the entire measuring range from about 50 mg/dL to over 350 mg/dL."

So, 1) no peer review, 2) small sample group, 3) extremely specific scenario.

…it's a start, I guess.
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Your other criticisms are fair but your wrong about sample size for a measurement device. That would be fine especially with repeated measures along a changing outcome as was used.
 
Nick_P said:
Do you guys think the blood glucose meter would really work? Non bloodstream measuring methods have been promised for years, (not by Apple), yet every diabetic I know still pricks their fingers daily. It would certainly be a game changer and really improve many people’s lives.
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There are continuous measures available already. They are invasive but people don’t need to prick their fingers all day either.
 
jimbobb24 said:
There are continuous measures available already. They are invasive but people don’t need to prick their fingers all day either.
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True, but in return, they are more invasive than pricking your fingers.

(They do have the huge benefit of giving your an all-day line chart, rather than a snapshot. Particularly good to see what values are like at night.)
 
jasonmvp said:
Correct. I'm pretty sure Apple is smart enough to not come out and swing for the fences the first time around. It'll be an iterative process, exactly like the various companies who do those awful Constant Glucose Monitoring (CGM) systems (eg: Medtronic, the maker of my pump). The first generation of their CGM was: "Hey, just use this to watch trends. Don't dose off of it. TEST YOUR BLOOD SUGAR MANUALLY!" The second generation was more of the same, "This is getting a lot better, but we recommend you not dosing off this. Test before you eat or if you think you need a correction."

However, the third generation (where they are now) is fully FDA-approved to be called an "artificial pancreas" when combined with their pump. For folks who the CGM works properly: they can use the system to alter the insulin delivery of the pump if they go too low; in other words it'll pause the pump and alert the diabetic; quite loudly and annoyingly, too.

Those iterations took almost ten years, give or take.

The simple ability to watch trends for a diabetic is invaluable. Even if it isn't 100% accurate, just knowing the direction the blood glucose is going at any given time is huge. And this is likely where the first generation of the Apple Watch would go. Sign. Me. Up!
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Agreed. I'm sure it will be an iterative process and even trends will be invaluable. I'm especially excited for the general populous, with type 2 being so prevalent & probably a good portion of the US being insulin resistant to some extent. Getting a device to so many all over the wold with the ability to see ballpark BG numbers is a game changer for overall heath. Hopefully it can make insulin resistance and type 2 more preventable. Unfortunately the public isn't very educated on how important BG/insulin is in the grand scheme of their overall heath and I'm hopping this is something that can steer us in the right direction! Additionally its not like they give out CGMS, OGGTs, and insulin assays to everyone and the standard prevention care is just looking at fasting glucose once a year which is almost the worst method of detecting something is wrong (and its late).
 
BLOOD ALCOHOL MONITORING! 😲 There was a recent news story of a murderer who was found guilty because the information on his Apple Watch conflicted with his statement. Of course monitoring your alcohol levels is a good thing, but what if the police want to get that information from anyone they breathalyse? It might not happen immediately but it could happen.
 
If Apple can pull off an accurate blood pressure reading with the watch then I would upgrade from my SE. But I somehow doubt it would be as good as a dedicated device. I’ll have to wait and see, maybe there are ways it can be helpful. The glucose and alcohol monitoring would be of little use to me.
 
nwcs said:
If Apple can pull off an accurate blood pressure reading with the watch then I would upgrade from my SE. But I somehow doubt it would be as good as a dedicated device. I’ll have to wait and see, maybe there are ways it can be helpful. The glucose and alcohol monitoring would be of little use to me.
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I also don't think blood pressure will be accurately measured, which IMO would make it pretty useless medically.

But as I suggested earlier, the O2 sensor is also totally inaccurate, and probably will never get proper medical approval, but despite this it's still a widely popular feature in Apple Watches. I personally have no use for it though, and probably would have no use for a similarly inaccurate BP monitor.
 
This would be a day 1 upgrade for my diabetic mom. Now if only we can convince my diabetic dad to use an AppleWatch instead of his TAG Heuer.
 
Blood alcohol would def be cool - if you are a minor and alcohol level's too high Siri will call your parents automatically and reveal your location. If your an adult Siri will call your spouse.
 
chucker23n1 said:
True, but in return, they are more invasive than pricking your fingers.

(They do have the huge benefit of giving your an all-day line chart, rather than a snapshot. Particularly good to see what values are like at night.)
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How do you mean more invasive?. The continuous monitoring devices like the FreeStyle Libre are EXPENSIVE and produce a LOT of single-use plastic waste.
 
Doctor, “how much alcohol do you drink?”. One per week for me. Siri, I have uploaded the correct data on alcohol. SOB Siri ratted on me. 😂
 
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I hope the blood glucose feature comes to the next Apple Watch release. I’ll finally replace my series 2 (which works fine other than the mic).
 
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