Non-Invasive Blood Glucose Monitoring Bands are Dangerous, Experts Warn
Jerusalem, 16 April, 2025 (TPS-IL) -- (PAP) – “Non-invasive devices worn on the finger, wrist or in the form of wristbands are not currently considered medical tools for safe and accurate monitoring of glycemia. They should not be used as a basis for making therapeutic decisions, and they certainly cannot replace approved, proven methods of measuring glucose concentration,” experts emphasize in a position published on the Polish Diabetes Association (PTD) website.
At the same time, they add that people with diabetes – regardless of the type of disease and therapy used – should only use devices approved for sale by the relevant medical supervision institutions (FDA, EMA).
“Others, advertised as “non-invasive”, should not be used either in patient self-monitoring or in clinical practice,” they emphasized.
Recently, devices have appeared on the market that are supposedly used to measure glycemia. These include uncertified wristbands, pulse oximeters, and smartwatches. This is potentially dangerous because a patient receiving an imprecise reading may make the wrong therapeutic decision, e.g. inject too much insulin and lead to a life-threatening condition – hypoglycemia, or remain in a state of hyperglycemia for too long. The risk of future complications therefore increases.
How do the advertised devices work?
“The measurement is usually taken from the skin surface and is based on the analysis of changes in electrical resistance, sweat composition or optical signals. However, none of these technologies currently allows for obtaining a measurement with the accuracy and reliability comparable to glucometers or continuous glucose monitoring systems (CGM),” the PTD experts warned.
At the same time, they explained that “these devices use various physical and optical techniques such as near and mid infrared spectroscopy (NIR, MIR), dual-wavelength polarimetry, Raman spectroscopy, and fluorescence methods.”
Patients, misled, bought, for example, a regular pulse oximeter that only measures saturation. This practice is not only very dangerous in terms of health, but also dishonest from the customer’s point of view.
“Buyers were unable to return the goods, which resulted in financial loss and misleading as to the functionality of the device. In some cases, dishonest sellers illegally used the logos of renowned companies, such as Siemens Healthcare1 or Medtronic2, which was met with an immediate legal response from interested entities,” the experts emphasized.
They stressed that the only reliable measurement of blood glucose concentration is possible only using a glucometer (capillary blood from the fingertip) or a sensor worn, for example, on the arm, measuring glucose concentration in the interstitial fluid (continuous glucose monitoring system – CGM).
“Modern CGM systems can integrate with mobile devices, including smartwatches, but it should be emphasized that the mere visualization of data on the watch is not equivalent to the measurement made by the watch,” they said.
