About the Book
For over 35 years, industrial chemist and medical device expert John L. Smith chronicled every serious attempt to measure glucose without drawing blood. This 9th and final edition documents the rise and fall of more than 200 research efforts — from near-infrared and Raman spectroscopy to microneedles and sweat sensors — with brutal honesty and rare insider perspective.
Both scientists and investors have called it "the encyclopedia of noninvasive glucose monitoring."
Smith's work remains the most complete record of this technological pursuit — a must-read for anyone in diabetes technology, spectroscopy, or medical device innovation.
Table of Contents
Preface to the Ninth Edition
Foreword
Introduction and Background
- A Brief History of Blood Glucose Monitoring
- “IDM”
- Why is Noninvasive Such a Big Deal?
- Noninvasive Glucose: Background and Definitions
- Resources
- Know the Enemy
- A Few Notes about Regulations
- Wellness Devices
- Patents
- It Ain’t Necessarily So
Measurement Techniques
- Spectroscopic Techniques
- Near-Infrared
- The Reference Problem
- Mid-Infrared Emission
- Mid-Infrared
- Stimulated Emission / Stimulated Raman
- Raman Spectroscopy
- Terahertz Spectroscopy
- Photoacoustic Spectroscopy
- Magic (for comic relief)
- Optical Rotation
- Optical Rotation in Tissue
- Light Scattering
- Transdermal Techniques (and other trans-membrane techniques)
- The Retina
- Saliva
- Breath
- Hypoglycemia Monitors
- Tying Ideas to New Technologies
Analysis and Lessons Learned
- Why Does It Keep Going On?
- What Makes Everyone Think Their Approach Works?
- Oral Glucose Tolerance Tests
- Correlation
- Clarke Error Grid
- Emotional Considerations
- Tests of Technologies
- Individual Regression
- More about Calibration
- Individual vs. Universal Calibration
- Clinical Studies
- Why Don’t People Communicate the Results of Their Work?
Technologies and Groups
- Near-Infrared: The 800-Pound Gorilla
- Other Approaches
- Transdermal Measurements
- Pulse Oximetry Related Measurements
- Pulse Wave
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (or MRI) - Microwave Spectroscopy
- Subdermal Reporters
- Radio Frequency / Impedance
Microporation - Optical Coherence Tomography
Thermal and “Combination” Techniques - Evanescent Wave Spectroscopy
- Fringe Players
Summary
Appendix A
About the Author
About the Author
John L. Smith (1944–2024) was an industrial chemist, inventor, and medical device consultant. He worked with leading companies in glucose monitoring, including LifeScan (Johnson & Johnson), Technicon, and Baker Instruments, and served as a reviewer for numerous journals and patents.
For more than three decades, Smith tracked every known effort in noninvasive glucose measurement — a pursuit he described as "equal parts science, persistence, and humility." His writings remain a cornerstone for researchers in diabetes technology.
Continue the Pursuit
John L. Smith concluded his final edition by inviting future scientists, engineers, and historians to carry this work forward.
If you are engaged in research, data collection, or documentation related to noninvasive glucose technologies and wish to contribute to the next chapter of this chronicle, we welcome your collaboration.
Our goal is to preserve and expand this open scientific record — ensuring that decades of insight are not lost to time.
Interested in contributing? Send an email to [email protected]
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