HealthPia America

Health-Care Design

Call the Doctor

GlucoPhone

HealthPia

In 2004, HealthPia Korea and LG Electronics introduced a mobile phone that incorporates a glucose meter. Here's how it works: A diabetic takes a blood sample from the finger, places the blood on a disposable strip, and then inserts it into the phone. A glucose meter can be snapped into selected LG phones programmed with proprietary software that read the strip and then display the blood data. Then a diabetic can transmit the information from the phone to a caregiver. Most diabetes-management data systems require a computer to transmit information to a doctor or nurse. But the GlucoPhone allows the patient to upload and share information by phone, without having to be at a computer. In August, 2007, the U.S. version of the phone received FDA approval. GlucoPhone suggests that the convergence of consumer electronics and medical devices is increasingly possible to achieve, and that partnerships between large mobile-phone makers, such as LG, and medical-device companies are feasible.