Wearables

Is Digital Health Evolving Too Quickly?

Digital health is evolving in leaps and bounds, which could be threatening its success. Digital healthcare faces a significant challenge: it is evolving too rapidly for its target market. Read on to learn more about the situation.

Reimagining Psychiatric Care: How Wearable Technology Is Transforming Mental Health Treatment

Wearable technology is transforming psychiatric care at home by offering real-time insights that help care teams make informed decisions faster. With constant monitoring, these devices help identify early signs of distress or deterioration, enabling timely interventions that can prevent hospitalizations and promote better patient outcomes. Read on to learn more.

E-Tattoo Reads Brainwaves

A conductive ink can be printed directly on the surface of a patient’s head and measure their brainwaves. These e-tattoos serve as the sensors for electroencephalography (EEG), a medical test that measures the brain’s electrical activity. EEG can help diagnose and monitor brain tumors, sleep disorders and other brain issues. Read on to learn more.

From the Editor - The 2024 Product of the Year

In December, we asked Medical Design Briefs readers to cast their ballot to choose from our eight Products of the Month the technology they felt was the most significant new introduction to the design engineering community in 2024. Here is the winner of the 2024 Medical Design Briefs’ Readers’ Choice Product of the Year. Read on to learn more.

Wearable Device Combines Multiple Sensors

A new device aims to detect acute exacerbations of chronic conditions. The wearable monitoring device contains multiple types of sensors, enabling faster and more accurate detection of exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and chronic conditions like asthma, heart disease and other inflammatory disorders. Read on to learn more about it.

Wearable Ultrasound Tech for Muscle Monitoring

Engineers have developed a wearable ultrasound device that can provide long-term, wireless monitoring of muscle activity with potential applications in healthcare and human-machine interfaces. Designed to stick to the skin with a layer of adhesive and powered by a battery, the device enables high-resolution tracking of muscle function without invasive procedures. Read on to learn more.

Proof of Life: The Rapid Evolution of Biosensors for Fitness, Health, and Wellness

While smartwatches and fitness trackers have paved the way, upcoming innovations in hearables (earbuds that monitor health), augmented reality glasses, smart patches and smart clothing will push the boundaries of what biosensors can do. As demand for these devices increases, the focus will shift to making them more energy-efficient, secure, and even more embedded in daily life. Read on to learn more.

Landmark FDA Clearance May Accelerate Compelling Digital Therapeutics

Read on to learn more about a significant step forward in the rapidly evolving field of digital therapeutics (DTx).

2025 Trends in Healthcare: Bridging Technology, Personalization, and Accessibility

The healthcare landscape in 2025 will be reshaped by advancements in data analytics, AI, IoT, and wearable technologies, which together promise predictive, personalized, and accessible care. Read on to learn more about Editor and Director of Medical Content Sherrie Trigg's, as well as other industry professionals', thoughts on the matter.

Medical Podcasts

Listen to MDB's medical podcasts, including one on the rise of advanced sensor technologies; one on the advancements that allow for continuous, real-time data collection from within the human body; one on the exploration of devices from fitness trackers to smartwatches; and one on the transformative role of microfabrication and MEMS technology in advancing sensor integration for medical devices. Listen now!

Efficient Wearable Energy Harvester

Researchers have developed a three-dimensional stretchable piezoelectric energy harvester that can harvest electrical energy using body movements. The device is to be used as a wearable energy harvester as it can be attached to the skin or clothes. Read on to learn more.

Gel-Based Nanogenerators for Wearables

Researchers have developed a gel polymer-based triboelectric nanogenerator that generates electrical signals from body movement to power electronics like LEDs and functions as a self-powered touch panel for user identification. The device can stretch up to 375 percent of its original size and withstand rigorous mechanical deformations, making it suitable for wearable applications. Read on to learn more.

Technology

In 2012, what technology that is ubiquitous in our everyday lives was used to recognize and measure DNA concentration?

The Integration of Sensors into Next-Generation Health Devices

How advanced sensor technologies driving the development of wearables and health-monitoring devices.

The Role of MEMS in Next-Gen Medical Devices

How microfabrication and MEMS technology are driving sensor-based medical devices.

Biosensors and Wearables for Health Insights

In a recent Medical Design Briefs podcast, Rob Batchelor, head of biosensors at Australia-based Nutromics, joined us to talk about continuous monitoring and biosensors for health insights. This article presents excerpts from that podcast.

Wearable Device for Cells Could Help Restore Brain Function

Wearable devices like smartwatches and fitness trackers interact with parts of our bodies to measure and learn from internal processes, such as our heart rate or sleep stages. Now, MIT researchers have developed wearable devices that may be able to perform similar functions for individual cells inside the body. Read on to learn more.

Soft Microelectronics Enable Wearable AI for Digital Health

A research team has introduced a groundbreaking wearable in-sensor computing platform. This platform is built on an emerging microelectronic device, an organic electrochemical transistor (OECT), invented explicitly for bioelectronics applications. Read on to learn more about it.

Wearable Laser Monitors Brain Blood Flow

Researchers have developed a laser-based device that can be placed on the head to noninvasively monitor changes in brain blood flow and volume. The new device could one day help save lives by offering a direct and simple way to assess stroke risk based on physiological markers rather than indirect markers like lifestyle factors. Read on to learn more.

Researchers Develop Clinically Validated, Wearable Ultrasound Patch for Continuous Blood Pressure Monitoring

A team of researchers at the University of California – San Diego has developed a new and improved wearable ultrasound patch for continuous and noninvasive blood pressure monitoring. Read on to learn more.

Nanofiber Patch for Psoriasis

Researchers have developed a patch for easier and more effective treatment of psoriasis. The method may also be used in treatment of other inflammatory skin diseases. The dry patch contains active ingredients for treatment of psoriasis reduces the frequency of use to once a day. Read on to learn more.

Implantable Sensors for Internal Health Monitoring

The advent of implantable sensor technologies has had a transformative impact on internal health monitoring. This episode looks into the advancements that allow for continuous, real-time data collection from within the human body, revolutionizing patient care and treatment strategies.

The Rise of Advanced Sensor Technologies

How sensors are reshaping the landscape of medical diagnostics, enabling quicker and more accurate health assessments.

2024 Create the Future Design Contest: Honorable Mentions

See the honorable mentions from the 2024 Create the Future Design Contest, including the Vivally System, the only FDA-cleared, closed-loop, athome, noninvasive neuromodulation device system; PyrAmes, a digital health company focused on fundamentally transforming healthcare delivery through continuous blood pressure (BP) monitoring that is accurate, wireless, and noninvasive; Battelle's platform for the discovery of novel polymeric nanoparticles (PNPs) delivery vehicles; and more.

Lifesaving Spongelike ‘Bandage’ Rapidly Stops Hemorrhaging

Without proper medical invention, injuries sustained from traffic collisions, serious workplace accidents, or weapons may result in fatal hemorrhaging. UCF researchers aim to prevent such bleeding in potentially deadly situations with a new hemostatic spongelike bandage with antimicrobial efficacy. Read on to learn more.

How to Design Reliable, Low-Power Wearable Medicine Injectors

Advances in IoT and electronic technology are enabling more personalized, continuous medical care. People with medical conditions that require a high degree of monitoring and continuous medication infusion can now take advantage of wearable medicine injection devices to treat their problems. Read on to learn more.

Finger Pouch Actuator Improves Rehab Gloves

Researchers have succeeded in adding finger straightening or extension to soft rehabilitation gloves through a novel foldable pouch actuator (FPA) without compromising the already existing functionality of finger bending or flexion. Read on to learn more about it.

How Printed Electronics Are Transforming Healthcare

The convergence of healthcare and technology is reshaping patient care, and printed electronics are pivotal in this transformation. Printed electronics offer promising solutions, enabling real-time monitoring and proactive patient management for improved outcomes. Read on to learn more.

A Band-Aid for the Heart? New 3D Printing Method Makes This, and Much More, Possible

In the quest to develop lifelike materials to replace and repair human body parts, scientists face a formidable challenge: Real tissues are often both strong and stretchable and vary in shape and size. A CU Boulder-led team has taken a critical step toward cracking that code. They’ve developed a new way to 3D print material that is at once elastic enough to withstand a heart’s persistent beating, tough enough to endure the crushing load placed on joints, and easily shapable to fit a patient’s unique defects. Read on to learn more.