Apple Watch Set to Include Third-Party Glucose Tracking App at Launch

Medical device manufacturer DexCom over the weekend announced the company is developing an app for the upcoming Apple Watch that will display all of a user's glucose and blood sugar-related health data on their wrist (via The Wall Street Journal).

The company, whose expertise lies in "continuous glucose monitoring systems for diabetes management," says the app is expected to be ready when the Apple Watch launches in April. The app would sync to existing monitors manufactured by DexCom that use a "hair's width sensor" located under the user's skin to measure and report blood glucose levels every five minutes, a more seamless process than traditional skin-prick glucose monitors, according to the company.

dexcomwatch
Though most health-related apps have been closely scrutinized by the FDA in the past, The Wall Street Journal reports DexCom and a group of developers behind another diabetes-related application called NightScout have convinced the FDA to change course on health apps.

The group’s effort challenged the slow pace of innovation and regulatory approval in the field. It also highlighted the growing role that Silicon Valley companies and software developers hope to have in monitoring and maintaining people’s health.

Previously, the FDA considered glucose monitors and any associated software to be Class III medical devices, meaning they received the highest level of regulatory scrutiny. But the spread of NightScout, the system developed by the group of software engineers, and DexCom’s submission of a separate iPhone app for review prompted the FDA to change course last month.

Subsequently, DexCom's monitors that require injection under a patient's skin will understandably remain Class III devices but the software that displays the data - such as the Apple Watch app - now only needs to be registered with the FDA without prior marketing approval. Alberto Gutierrez, director of the FDA’s Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health, evoked the positive benefits of the app far outweigh any negatives, “We felt that the risks that the app imposed weren’t as high."

Apple itself has been steadily moving towards a more health-concerned future, with the introduction of the Health app into iOS 8 as a preparation for the upcoming built-in fitness integration features of the Apple Watch. Major U.S. hospitals are rolling out their own trial programs with HealthKit, Apple's tools that leverage the iPhone's various motion-tracking sensors and peripheral accessories to track and log the history of a user's health data.

Related Roundup: Apple Watch 10
Buyer's Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

10 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Thursday October 31, 2024 9:42 am PDT by
Apple is set to release iOS 18.2 in December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. There are a handful of new non-AI related feature controls incoming as well. ...
M4 Pro on Blue

M4 Pro Chip Benchmark Results Reveal an Extremely Impressive Performance Feat

Thursday October 31, 2024 7:06 pm PDT by
The first Geekbench 6 benchmark results for the M4 Pro chip surfaced today. Impressively, the results that are available so far show that the highest-end M4 Pro chip is faster than the highest-end M2 Ultra chip in terms of peak multi-core CPU performance. Here is a comparison of the results: Mac mini with M4 Pro (14-core CPU): 22,094 multi-core score (average of 11 results) Mac Studio...
Apple iPhone SE 4 5G Modem 1

iPhone SE 4 First to Get Apple-Designed 5G Modem, iPhone 17 Pro to Add Custom Wi-Fi 7 Chip

Friday November 1, 2024 4:04 am PDT by
The iPhone SE 4 that's set to come out early next year is expected to debut Apple's first in-house 5G modem, according to Jeff Pu, an analyst who covers companies within Apple's supply chain. In a research note this week with Hong Kong-based investment firm Haitong International Securities, Pu said Apple is expected to roll out its custom-made 5G modem starting with the next-generation...
best early black friday deals

The Best Early Black Friday Apple Deals

Friday November 1, 2024 8:21 am PDT by
We're officially in the month of Black Friday, which will take place on Friday, November 29 in 2024. As always, this will be the best time of the year to shop for great deals, including popular Apple products like AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, and more. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment,...
M3 Pro Max vs M4 Pro Max Feature

Here's How Much Faster M4 Pro/Max Are for Graphics vs. M3 Pro/Max

Friday November 1, 2024 8:04 am PDT by
Apple's new M4 Pro and M4 Max chips are impressively fast in terms of CPU performance, topping the M2 Ultra, but what about graphics performance? The first Geekbench 6 results for GPU performance are now available for the M4 Pro and M4 Max, and the Metal scores reveal some impressive year-over-year gains. Based on the Metal scores that are available so far, the M4 Pro and M4 Max are up to...
imac video apple feature

What to Expect From Apple This November

Friday November 1, 2024 9:40 am PDT by
After a busy October in which Apple announced new Macs and Apple Intelligence launched, the calendar has now turned to November. Below, we outline what to expect from Apple this month as the slower-but-still-busy holiday season approaches. After seeding the first betas of iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2 with additional Apple Intelligence features last month, Apple will likely...
pixelmator

Apple Acquires Photo Editing App Maker Pixelmator

Friday November 1, 2024 8:41 am PDT by
Apple has reached an agreement to acquire Pixelmator, the company behind popular photo and image editing apps Pixelmator Pro, Pixelmator for iOS, and Photomator. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval, according to an announcement made by the Pixelmator team on Friday. Based in Vilnius, Lithuania, Pixelmator has developed a suite of well-regarded creative tools that compete with...

Top Rated Comments

mrgraff Avatar
127 months ago
Where do you get the sensor implanted under your skin? At the Apple store?

That's where I got my Apple Pay barcode tattoo.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mikemj23 Avatar
127 months ago
Sadly, this is only tracking software. My meter does this already, and my doctor downloads the data from it. I don't see this changing anytime soon, considering medical devices have soooooo much regulation.
The Dexcom system is not just tracking software. It's a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) via a sensor the user implants under the skin that reads your BG every 5 min.

----------

Where do you get the sensor implanted under your skin? At the Apple store?
No LOL - the user implants the sensor. FDA says to change it every 7 days but I typically get 20+ days out of mine. The Apple Watch and the Dexcom system are mutually exclusive. What is being integrated is the option for the transmitter to send the data now to other devices (i.e. Apple Watch, Android phones etc) and not just the receiver we all have currently to see the data.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AppleScruff1 Avatar
127 months ago
Where do you get the sensor implanted under your skin? At the Apple store?
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JeffyTheQuik Avatar
127 months ago
Here's your quandary.
You're diabetic. You have a blood glucose test unit for £10.00

You can continue using it like you always have done or spend £400 on a watch(!) to do the same thing.

Or.

You're not diabetic. But have a sudden interest in monitoring your blood sugar or other people's - now the Apple Watch has come out.

Either way. Go for the former option. Honestly. It'll save you much money. £390 more money. Sorted! Next problem?
Here's another quandary:

You're not a diabetic, so your pancreas works, and you have a closed loop system to control your blood sugar. You decide, tonight, to eat a piece of cake with 39g of carbohydrates, and then go to sleep. You wake up, and your blood sugar is 72 +/- 10 mg/dl.

or

You are a T1 diabetic, and so you have to do all of those calculations in your head, or your insulin pump, but in the interest of saving money, you use shots and regular/NPH insulin, instead of a pump ($7000, plus $40/week in supplies and insulin) and a CGM ($1400, plus $50/week), supplied by Dexcom, since Apple isn't making a CGM, just a watch to see the results of that CGM on the watch. You wake up (or not) with blood sugar between 30 and 400, because your carb:insulin ratio didn't take into account the stress you had remembering the foxtrot on the dance floor, the dawn effect, the syringe you used didn't have the resolution needed to give yourself 4.8 units, or that the NPH kicked in after the sugar wore off of that cake, or some reason you didn't take into account, like over/underestimating the carb/fat/protein ratios and the glycemic index of that cake and your body.

Oh yeah, that 10 quid was for the meter. The test strips are still $1/ea for the OneTouch Brand. The meter companies don't lose money, and the meter is a loss leader. Ever try to get the Bayer meter to read a OneTouch Strip?

Come over to my house. I'll let you walk a mile in my shoes.

NOTE: Bruce did apologize for his post. My apologies for this rant after his apology.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mikemj23 Avatar
127 months ago
Great...you've identified a feature/benefit that a vast majority of the population will never use. That's not going to be the way to sell me the watch.

Agree that this doesn't apply to the majority of folks out there (thankfully) but it's not really a "feature" of the watch. It's basically just another app. Even if I don't buy an Apple Watch the integration with my iPhone is still very exciting news for CGM users.

If you had a dead pancreas you would understand :)
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mikemj23 Avatar
127 months ago
:D All joking aside, how do you insert the sensor under your skin?

No worries and I laugh about this stuff all the time. Type 1 (Juvenile Diabetes) is pain in the ass but there are a lot of other folks a lot worse off than me.

There is an insertion device that comes with each sensor. Basically the sensor is wrapped around a needle which is inserted under the skin and then the needle is removed just leaving the sensor embedded. Very cool stuff and useful BG trending information for us.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)