Painless patch for diabetes monitoring now being developed

Wearable patch will send crucial readings to users' smartphones

Researchers are developing a tiny, painless, wearable patch for people with type 1 diabetes which will send crucial readings to their smartphones.

The new project, funded by the JDRF (formerly known as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation), involves the use of hundreds of tiny microneedles to sense glucose and ketone levels.

The research team is aiming to bring a product to market within the next few years to provide continuous, non-invasive monitoring to improve health and eliminate painful, inconvenient finger pricks.

"Patients won't have to be constantly conscious of taking measurements," said Mahla Poudineh, an electrical and computer engineering professor at the University of Waterloo who leads the project. "This device will do it for them."

Professor Mahla Poudineh working in her lab.

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