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Behold: Smart Diabetes Contact Lens

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Behold: Smart Diabetes Contact Lens

Let’s be honest. Sure, people with diabetes can still live a normal life-ish, but they won’t lie that life would be (so much) easier without it. Type 1 diabetics probably have it worst than Type 2 since it generally occurs early in life, and patients are faced with injecting insulin till blue in the face. (You can’t say that isn’t sad.)

No cure appears to be coming out soon, but researchers are actively finding ways to lessen the burden of diabetes.

We’ve heard about the artificial pancreas, but one team is taking another path: smart lens.

Man, I love science.

The Technology

So, here is a rundown on how this smart lens works.




A transparent biosensor is carefully nestled on the contact lens and acts as a monitor for blood sugar and pH levels (the pH is the measurement of the acidity levels) using tears as their reference. The goal of this futuristic contact lens is to alert the user of the need to inject insulin based on their glycemic levels. This concept is not the first of its kind. In 2014, Google developed a similar prototype, so this is not all abstract we are talking about.

Sadly, the big sponsor of this project, Novartis, a healthcare company, has withdrawn their funding “due to technical difficulties.” You see, the current technology developed by Gregory Herman and his team at the Oregan State University can only measure the glycemic levels in the blood, not in tears—yet. Their ultimate end game is to incorporate hundreds of sensors within the same contact lens to monitor not just one but several indicators. In other words, this technology can benefits patients suffering from diseases other diabetes, like cancer, renal problems, and more.

It may take years until we see this product on the market. Patience is a virtue!