We speak with Dr Faz Chowdhury, CEO of Nemaura Medical regarding the ground-breaking technology of non-invasive glucose sensors and more
Digital health, wearables, self-management and preventative medicine are the future of medicine, and Nemaura Medical believe that they are well poised to make significant contributions in this field. Dr Faz Chowdhury discusses here with Open Access Government the ways in which Nemaura are innovatively contributing to preventing and reversing Type 2 diabetes, as well as expanding their offering to metabolic health.
Please tell us a bit more about what you do, and your work at UK-based medical technology company Nemaura Medical?
Nemaura Medical is now 11 years old, and we spent the first 10 years developing what is now the world’s first non-invasive glucose sensor technology platform. Basically, we developed a sensor that can be stuck to the arm to measure glucose from the skin and provide the profile of the glucose fluctuations over time, over the course of the day.
The sensor is not implanted or pierced deep into the skin like the competing marketed devices. The technology is a CE marked class 2B medical device and we are working on other sensors that can be used using the same device such as lactate and alcohol sensors.
Why is it important to empower people to take charge of their own health and wellbeing, particularly those with Diabetes?
There are substantial complications that arise from diabetes. For starters, almost 15% of healthcare budgets around the world are dedicated to dealing with diabetes and its complications. Combined with poor quality of life, this imposes a huge burden on both the healthcare providers as well as the patient.
The only way to really control the long-term complications is to reign in the blood glucose fluctuations that occur each day through a whole host of interventions including medicine, diet and exercise. To measure the fluctuations and the extent to which a person has been able to control and reign in those blood glucose fluctuations they require a continuous sensor, and this empowers the user to stay in control and track and regularly monitor their progress.
In your previous article for Open Access Government, you discuss Nemaura’s product sugarBEAT, the world’s first non-invasive CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitor). Since its launch, how has it been helping people not just in the UK but all over the world?
We are now expanding our offering to metabolic health, which in a nutshell is about measuring insulin resistance. A user can wear the device for just a few hours on one or two days each month and they will get their metabolic health score (which we link back to insulin resistance).
This is ground-breaking in many ways in that insulin resistance is not simply a precursor to diabetes but can lead to chronic diseases such as dementia as well as cardiovascular disease. The great thing is this is a preventative tool and applicable to almost one in two people wanting to take a pre-emptive proactive approach to look after their health, long before the actual disease manifests itself.
How can CGM help in monitoring disease progression and improving outcomes in patients infected with COVID-19?
There have been several journal articles that have linked COVID-19 to elevated blood glucose levels. It could be a great tool to measure this, since patients would only need to use a single sensor and only make the measurement a few times in the month to check the regression of the symptoms of COVID-19.
What do you hope for the future of type 2 diabetes care, and how will Nemaura Medical continue work towards this?
Our primary goal is to help stem the tide of Type 2 diabetes by combining small incremental manageable changes in lifestyle and diet with sugarBEAT as a tracking tool to keep users informed of their progress. Secondly, we aim to prevent as many people as possible from becoming Type 2 in the first place by pre-emptively monitoring and tracking their insulin resistance levels.
Please note: This is a commercial profile
