Fitbit has partnered with diabetes tracking company LifeScan, offering users the chance to keep tabs on blood sugar trends within the Fitbit app.
LifeScan offers cloud-based tracking of glucose levels, which are detected using a prick of user’s blood – and now the two ecosystems will be synced together.
As part of the partnership, LifeScan users can receive a Fitbit Inspire 2 and a Fitbit Premium subscription.
Fitness and wellbeing can have a positive impact on management of diabetes, and users will be able to access Fitbit’s workout and mindfulness content.
According to the CDC, between “33 and 50 percent of people with diabetes experience diabetes distress – overwhelming feelings that may cause them to slip into unhealthy habits, stop checking blood sugars or skip appointments with their healthcare team,” according to LifeScan.
And a Taiwanese study has linked lower fasting blood sugar, haemoglobin A1c, and LDL cholesterol to the use of a Fitbit tracker.
LifeScan users will be able to see blood sugar data alongside their daily fitness and activity stats in the Fitbit app.
Fitbit rolled out glucose tracking within the app earlier this year, although that data had to be manually added. This partnership with LifeScan seems to be an extension of that.
Fitbit has made no secret of its desire to crack non-invasive blood pressure monitoring, although that seems a long way off by any estimate. In an interview with Wareable, Fitbit CTO Eric Friedman told us:
"What's interesting about glucose is that it's so ubiquitous, so I think it's definitely something we are working on."
But being able to analyse blood sugar trends and map it to activity data will be a huge boost to Fitbit. It was able to start doing that with manual tracking, but having automated data from a portion of LifeScan’s 20 million users will supercharge its efforts.
Non-invasive blood sugar tracking and analysis may be some way off, but Fitbit is getting ready for when it arrives.
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James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.