Dive Brief:
- Google has filed a patent for a smartwatch-type device that could detect when an individual is eating and issue a reminder for patients to take their medication, MobiHealthNews reported.
- This latest patent filing adds to Google’s previous digital health patent filings, which include a needle-free blood drawing device; a smart contact lens that detects glucose; a cancer-fighting smartwatch; and an electronic tattoo that senses galvanic skin response.
- Google also entered a partnership with Johnson & Johnson last year to co-design surgical robots, which will be sold by a new business called Verb Surgical.
Dive Insight:
The medication reminder patent is the latest filed by Google Life Sciences, now called Verily. According to Venture Beat, the device has several sensors that can detect activity or motions involved with eating. Other signals could include blood sugar or perhaps time of day. In order to work properly, the device has to have a high degree of confidence before sending a notification.
The needle-free blood drawing device could be a wrist wearable or a handheld device that pierces the skin via a microparticle. This could be related to Verily’s partnership with Dexcom, which has said it has plans to get into the Type 2 diabetes market.
The glucose-sensing contact lens is being developed with Alcon, a Novartis subsidiary. The patent application does hint at additional applications for the smart contact lenses.
Sounding closer to science fiction than reality, the cancer-fighting smartwatch patent says it would “selectively bind to targets in the blood that have adverse health effects” and then those targets would be “selectively modified or destroyed by energy from outside the body such that the adverse health effects are reduced or eliminated.” Verily has used similar technology with its “cancer pill.”
The electronic tattoo patent mentions it could sense galvanic skin response, which could be used for lie detecting and/or health monitoring.
Source: healthcaredive.com
