Fitbit partners with Dexom to show glucose levels on Ionic
Fitbit shares jumped 10% today on news that the company is teaming up with Dexom to develop and market products to help people better manage diabetes.
Essential reading: High-tech options for monitoring your blood sugar
Dexcom makes products to allow for continuous glucose monitoring. In the initial stages, the partnership would bring its data to the Ionic, Fitbit’s first smartwatch. This would allow those with the condition to see both their activity and glucose levels, right on their wrist. Dexcom CGM users will also have the benefit of being able to connect with millions of people through Fitbit’s social platform.
“The strength of our brand and our ability to track critical health metrics continuously for up to 4+ days1, coupled with Dexcom’s market leadership in CGM, present a powerful combination that we hope will help millions of people better manage their diabetes,” said James Park, CEO of Fitbit.
“With Ionic, we are focused on driving positive health outcomes and more health focused tools, and this collaboration is a wonderful example of how we plan to bring that vision to our users.”
This is in a sense, a middle-of-the-road solution to integrating technology with diabetes care which will be available in early 2018. Non-invasive glucose monitoring is still considered to be the holy grail of diabetes treatment. Many companies have tried and failed and diabetes patients still have no accurate alternatives to tracking glucose by piercing the skin.
Diabetes is a lifelong condition that causes a person’s blood sugar level to become too high. It is one of the fastest growing health threats of our times and an urgent public health issue. With more than 400 million people affected (1 in 11 worldwide), it is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, stroke, lower limb amputation and causes millions of deaths every year.
Essential reading: Hands-on with Fitbit long awaited Ionic smartwatch
The two companies are in this for the long term. Looking ahead they will continue to explore opportunities to work together to bring to market products to help people better manage diabetes.
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