Leading smartwatch manufacturer Fitbit signed an agreement with French diagnostic systems provider LifeScan to integrate its health tracking apps with the latter's glucose monitoring devices to enable more accurate diabetes management.
After adding blood sugar tracking to its app earlier this year, Fitbit took this functionality further by pushing the LifeScan partnership that would allow a smarter method of capturing and tracking glucose readings, 9to5Google reported.
LifeScan offers hardware and services that assist diabetics manage their affliction. It provides a collection of meters that allow patients to digitally monitor their blood sugar levels, and this is done, in some offerings, through automatic app synching.
Fitbit Glucose Monitor to Expand Blood Sugar Tracking, Lifestyle Checks
Fitbit officials said the multi-year partnership will lead to more diabetes tools and resources that would give a holistic view of such factors as daily activities, sleep, diet and nutrition could affect glucose levels.
After LifeScan's OneTouch Reveal app started to sync results with the Fitbit app last February, this expanded agreement will make Fitbit Inspire 2 trackers and access to Fitbit Premium available to LifeScan users. This new setup will further allow better management of lifestyle activities, such as workouts, nutrition and stress.
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In addition, the OneTouch Reveal-Fitbit connectivity will have more functionalities, such as having OneTouch blood glucose data viewed alongside Fitbit metrics, offering a better means for users to comprehend how their exercise and blood sugar levels interact, TechRadar revealed.
Fitbit Glucose Monitoring Leads to Improvements in Fasting Blood Sugar, Hemoglobin Count
A clinical study in Taiwan, as reported by Business Insider, determined that adding Fitbit trackers to a diabetes intervention program through the Health2Sync glucose control app results in improvements in fasting blood sugar, hemoglobin A1c and LDL cholesterol.
Benefits from this LifeScan and Fitbit partnership will be available to consumers initially in the US using a portal service called OneTouch Solutions in the fall. It will then be provided to healthcare providers as a reimbursed adjudicated option early next year.
The partnership follows Fitbit's agreement with Diabetes UK, wherein the two companies would collaborate on healthy lifestyle initiatives such as the One Million Step Challenge.
Fitbit Expands Presence in Healthcare Market With Wearables Tracking Medical Conditions
Fitbit, acquired by tech giant Google last January, has penetrated deeper into the healthcare market, further enhancing its wearables as devices that specifically pinpoint and monitor medical conditions, including irregular heart rhythms and glucose levels.
Last year, Fitbit secured medical device clearances in the U.S. and Europe to optimize its electrocardiogram (ECG) app to determine cases of irregular heart rhythms, called atrial fibrillation. The tech giant made the move as it sets its sights to rival other ECG-capable smartwatch offerings, such as the Apple Watch, Fitbit said in a statement
Fitbit has likewise been used to effectively analyze the activity, sleep and resting heart rate changes in patients suffering from COVID-19, the Fitbit statement further read.
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