Your next Apple Watch, iPhone or MacBook may come with diabetes testing sensor

iPhone-maker Apple is reportedly working on glucose sensor technology for diabetes with a secret team.

Apple is secretly working on a new glucose sensing technology using light which might soon be included into the Apple Watch, iPhone or MacBook. (Apple)

Your next Apple Watch, iPhone, or the MacBook may come in with a diabetes testing sensor.

According to a CNBC report, the iPhone-maker is working on a secret project to monitor diabetes patients using glucose sensing technology.

Apple's secret team, which is made of biomedical researchers, want to device a method under which people don't have to give blood samples for knowing their glucose levels. As per the report, Apple is developing optical sensors that shine a light through the skin to measure glucose.

However, the report also claims that the project, most probably headed by Johny Srouji (Apple's senior vice president of hardware technologies), has been going on for five years and is currently at a stage to conduct feasibility trials. Apple has also reportedly hired consultants to help it jump through the inevitable regulatory hoops as well.

Interestingly, Steve Jobs believed Apple would one day be at the intersection of technology and biology, according to Walter Isaacson's biography of him.

An estimated 371 million people have the disease worldwide and in the last few years, several tech companies have been trying to come up with better solutions to help those afflicted. Virta is a startup tackling type 2 diabetes that promises to completely cure patients by remotely monitoring behaviours. Livongo Health is another startup in the Bay Area that just raised $52.5 million to launch its blood sugar monitoring product.

Google's parent Alphabet's life science company Verily has also tried to take on the disease with a smart contact lens that measures blood glucose levels through the eye but some reports suggest the now three-year-old project isn't going well.