Apple has made major progress on the noninvasive, continuous blood glucose tracking it has been developing for the Apple Watch, Bloomberg reports.

Apple believes the recent milestones it has hit in the technology, which dates back to founder Steve Jobs, could enable it to bring non-prick diabetes glucose monitoring to market in the near future.

If successful, it would make the Apple Watch, which already offers several heart-monitoring features, a powerhouse in the health industry and upend the multibillion-dollar diabetes business that serves 1 in 10 Americans.

The most advanced diabetes devices on the market typically rely on a skin prick for a blood sample, or patches, like those from Dexcom and Abbott Laboratories, inserted into the skin and replaced every two weeks.

Apple’s revolutionary approach would use a silicon photonics chip paired with a measurement system called optical absorption spectroscopy. The device would be placed on a person’s skin like the patches.

Lasers would then emit light wavelengths into an area just below the skin, where interstitial fluid leaked from capillaries resides. There, glucose can be detected.

The wavelengths would monitor the glucose concentration in the person’s body and reflect them back to a sensor with an algorithm to detect that individual’s blood glucose level.

Health industry insiders, who asked to remain anonymous, say Apple’s technology, which it began working on in 2010, is at the proof-of-concept stage, and that Apple is seeking patents for it. They also say the current device is the unwieldy size of a toaster but that Apple is trying to bring that down to roughly the size of a smartphone that can be strapped onto a person’s bicep.

Apple wants to pair this new health technology with a system to detect diabetes before it becomes a disease, i.e. prediabetes, and Type 2 diabetes, which is when a person’s body does not process insulin properly.

Apple has invested hundreds of millions of dollars on the glucose monitoring system, which CEO Tim Cook, COO Jeff Williams, and Eugene Kim, who runs Apple Watch hardware, are overseeing.

Apple first launched the Apple Watch in 2015 with a heart-rate sensor, and since then, it has gradually become more of a health tool. In 2018, it added electrocardiogram (ECG)-monitoring. Apple Watches can now also sense body temperature and calculate blood oxygen levels.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), which already provides the semiconductor chips for Apple’s iPhones, iPads and Macs, will power Apple-designed silicon photonics chips and sensors for the glucose system.

An Apple spokesperson declined to comment on the development to Bloomberg.

An Abbott Labs rep said it is also developing new, innovative glucose monitoring methods.