By Ariel Grossman, NoCamels -
More than 500 million people worldwide suffer from diabetes – and the number of patients with this condition, in particular Type 2, is expected to double in the next three decades. Nonetheless, measuring blood glucose remains painful, invasive and in some cases – with a constant monitor – expensive.
An Israeli startup believes it has a solution, and is developing the world’s first noninvasive method of measuring blood sugar with radio waves and smart algorithms.
The GWave, developed by Haifa-based startup HAGAR, uses sensors to emit radio waves that are then processed by proprietary algorithms. The algorithms filter out the “white noise” caused by other components in the blood, ensuring that the patient gets an accurate read of their glucose levels.
The device, which is about a third the size of a smartphone and is worn around the wrist, is able to measure a person’s blood glucose in 20 seconds. It uses Bluetooth to transmit the glucose readings to an accompanying mobile app that tracks readings and alerts users to fluctuations in their blood sugar levels.
Until now, radio wave technology failed to precisely measure blood sugar because it could not isolate the glucose from other components in the blood, such as enzymes or waste.
“The big challenge is that because there’s so much in your blood, it’s really hard to isolate just the glucose,” Taire Rubin, co-founder and VP of Business Development at HAGAR, tells NoCamels.
“But when you put [the GWave] on your wrist – whoever you are – it will read your glucose almost immediately,” she says.
An Accidental Discovery
HAGAR’s radiofrequency (RF) technology was invented by Dr. Gerry Waintraub, the startup’s chief technology officer and co-founder.
During an unrelated research project, Waintraub, a former RF technology researcher at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, accidentally spilled tea on a RF device and noticed that the system’s monitors had a significant reaction.
What was initially a mild inconvenience for Waintraub became a hypothesis that radio waves could be used to noninvasively detect glucose in blood.
The first GWave prototype was soon created and tested at the Sheba Medical Center, Israel’s largest medical center, where it demonstrated the ability to continuously measure blood glucose with at least 90 percent accuracy.
The proof of concept compared the efficacy of the GWave to a traditional method of blood sugar monitoring – the continuous glucose monitor (CGM) – which had an accuracy of 70 percent. A CGM uses a small sensor under a patient’s skin to measure and wirelessly transmit glucose data every five minutes to a device where it can be viewed.
But a CGM measures interstitial fluid glucose – a thin layer of fluid surrounding the body’s cells containing glucose and minerals – which does not have the same glucose level as the blood. Additionally, the levels provided by a CGM has around a 10 minute delay, and can be impaired by pain-relieving medications such as Tylenol.
HAGAR is not the first company to try and use RF to measure blood glucose in a noninvasive manner. There are a number of firms in the race to market such a revolutionary device, including tech giants Apple and Google, says Rubin.
But what sets HAGAR apart, according to Rubin, is the patented algorithms that enable the device to deliver accurate glucose readings. Moreover, she explains, while HAGAR has been able to continuously miniaturize its RF technology, other companies have not succeeded in doing so.
The startup ultimately wants to use that discovery to miniaturize the device so it can be integrated into smartwatches and connect to apps that lets both users and healthcare providers track glucose readings on their phones.
“Anyone with a smartwatch will be able to check their glucose levels, just like the way they’re able to check their heart rate and blood pressure,” says Rubin.
Since being founded in 2017, HAGAR has raised a total of $25 million, and is now hoping two clinical trials will achieve the goal of achieving US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.
The trials involve 250 participants for additional studies in the United States in collaboration with Dr. Roy Beck, founder of the Jaeb Center for Health Research in Florida, and in Israeli medical centers.
“Everyone today has someone who’s close to them and has diabetes,” says Rubin. “My grandfather actually passed away from diabetic complications, and our other co-founder has cousins with diabetes.”
Waintraub’s wife, too, has Type 1 diabetes.
“Glucose is really the only vital sign that diabetics have not been able to monitor in a noninvasive manner,” Rubin says. “We see this as a global challenge.”
