(Photo by Sky Schaudt - KJZZ)

Diabetic patients who use a traditional glucometer like this one routinely have to check their blood sugar levels by pricking their finger each time.

Diabetic patients routinely have to check their blood sugar levels and that means pricking their finger each time.

But researchers at Arizona State University are working on different approaches — specifically, ones that do not include needles.

Jeff La Belle, a professor of biomedical engineering at ASU, has been looking at this since about 2007.