Are you tired of painful needles to check your sugar level? You’re not alone. Millions of diabetic patients go through this daily struggle, but that may soon change. Researchers from BITS Hyderabad have innovated a wearable device that could end the pain — a smartwatch that checks your blood sugar without needles. It is not just an innovation; it is compassion powered by science.
BITS Hyderabad Smartwatch Tracks Sugar Levels Painlessly
Hyderabad: In a potentially innovative advancement for the treatment of diabetes, researchers at the BITS Pilani campus in Hyderabad have created a wearable smartwatch that uses sweat to measure blood glucose levels, providing a painless, affordable, and non-invasive substitute for traditional finger-prick techniques.
Through their startup, Cleome Innovation, PhD student Abhishek Kumar and his mentor, Prof. Sanket Goel, Principal Investigator at the Microfluidics and Nanoelectronics Lab, are currently guiding the diagnostic platform toward commercialization. As a spin-off from the BITS Hyderabad lab, the business wants to sell a wristband for proactive diabetes care.
The Startup Wants To Manage Diabetes Proactively
For proactive diabetes management, the startup is trying to launch the wearable technology into the healthcare industry. Having witnessed numerous family members with diabetes, Kumar was inspired to develop this non-invasive technique by their suffering.
“Many people have diabetes,” he remarked, referring to his father, grandfather, and grandmother. “I used to test them by taking blood with a finger prick (for a glucometer), and sometimes, I could actually feel their suffering.”
Clinical Validation Will Be Performed On The Product
Before going on sale, the product will be filed for regulatory authorization following clinical validation, according to Kumar.
Initial trials might begin in six months, he noted, and commercial production could take a year. A fully automated, self-testing diagnostic platform that can identify important diabetes-related biomarkers from sweat and urine samples is being improved by this work.
The Device’s Accuracy Is Between 97–98%
The platform is built to be dependable, affordable, and scalable. Every part has been selected to minimize expenses without sacrificing functionality. In addition to measuring glucose, the wearable gadget can also monitor lactate and uric acid, two crucial metabolic markers. In tests so far, it has demonstrated an outstanding accuracy rate of approximately 97–98%.
Innovation At Just Rs 2,500
According to Professor Goel, the study was just published by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in the Lab on a Chip magazine. In order to enable continuous and real-time monitoring of numerous analytes, the research team is focusing on converting the system into wearable formats, such as patch-based or flexible skin sensors. This is a step toward personalized, on-the-go health tracking, the professor added. “Diabetes can cause silent and early problems; it’s not only about blood sugar levels.
We can obtain a broader view of a patient’s metabolic state by keeping an eye on other indicators like lactate and uric acid. Without the need for blood samples, our system achieves this in real-time, non-invasively, and economically.” The device, which costs about Rs 2,500, is made to enable deeper metabolic monitoring using basic biofluids like sweat and is intended to replace finger-prick testing, according to Prof. Goel.
This innovation from BITS Hyderabad is not just a significant technological advancement; it’s a solution to the daily challenges faced by millions of people with diabetes. The smartwatch-based wearable has the potential to completely transform how we track and treat this chronic illness with affordability and convenience.
Clinical trials and commercialization are imminent, which might usher in a new era of painless, real-time, and customized healthcare in India, for a mere ₹2,500.
One drop of sweat at a time, the future of diabetes care is already being built, not just coming.
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