'No pricking business': BITS Hyderabad develops smartwatch-based wearable for sugar readings

HYDERABAD: With an aim to offer a non-invasive, painless, low-cost alternative to conventional testing methods of glucose levels in the body, a BITS Pilani Hyderabad campus student and his mentor developed a smartwatch-based wearable diagnostic platform that would use sweat to measure the sugar readings.

The research for platform which was developed by the co-founders Abhishek Kumar, a PhD scholar and Prof. Sanket Goel-Principal Investigator, is being translated toward commercialization through Cleome Innovation, a spin-off from the MEMS ( Microfluidics and Nanoelectronics Lab) of the BITS Pilani , Hyderabad campus.

The Startup is working to bring the wearable device to the healthcare market for proactive diabetes management, Abhishek Kumar said. "In my family, even around, I have seen diabetes patients. My father, my grandfather, my grandmother, many people are diabetes patients. So I used to test them using that finger prick method ( to draw blood for glucometer). And I literally sometimes used to feel their pain,"

Wearable also detects uric acid levels

Kumar told PTI when asked why he chose to innovate the non-invasive method. One of the most significant features of the platform is its cost-effectiveness and the team deliberately engineered the platform to be scalable, low-cost, and reliable. Each component has been selected to minimize cost while maintaining performance, said Abhishek Kumar. The wearable can detect, not only glucose levels, but also uric acid and lactate which are also important metabolic parameters, the research scholar said.

According to him, as per the sample which they tested it has achieved a good accuracy of around 97 to 98 percent currently. Kumar said after clinical validation of the product , it would be submitted for regulatory approvals before going into commercialization.

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Low-cost alternative

"The first trials may start in six months from now. So altogether it may take one year to get into commercial production," he added. This work is a significant improvisation from a turnkey, fully automated, self-testing diagnostic platform capable of detecting key diabetes-related biomarkers, but from urine and sweat samples, offering a painless, low-cost alternative to conventional testing methods.

The study has been recently published in the Lab on a Chip journal by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), prof Goel said. Looking forward, the research team is working on translating the system into wearable formats, such as patch-based or flexible skin sensors, to enable continuous and real-time monitoring of multiple analytes, a step toward personalized, on-the-go health tracking, the professor further said.

"Diabetes isn’t just about glucose; complications can arise silently and early. By monitoring additional markers like lactate and uric acid, we gain a more complete picture of a patient’s metabolic condition. Our system does this non-invasively, affordably, and in real time without requiring blood samples. Costing around Rs 2,500, the device continuously delivers results and is designed not just to replace finger-prick tests, but to enable broader metabolic monitoring using simple biofluids like sweat," said Prof. Goel. The team is anticipating working with the industry for technology transfer or enhancing, he added.