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Skin sensors are the future of health care

Thin, flexible, wireless monitoring systems could make medicine more predictive and personalized, argue Shuai Xu, Arun Jayaraman and John A. Rogers.
  1. Shuai Xu

    1. Shuai Xu is the medical director at the Center for Bio-Integrated Electronics, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA.

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  2. Arun Jayaraman

    1. Arun Jayaraman is the director of the Max Nader Center for Rehabilitation Technologies and Outcomes Research, Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

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  3. John A. Rogers

    1. John A. Rogers is the Simpson-Querrery Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the Center for Bio-Integrated Electronics, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA.

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Thin, soft electronic systems that stick onto skin are beginning to transform health care. Millions of early versions1 of sensors, computers and transmitters woven into flexible films, patches, bandages or tattoos are being deployed in dozens of trials in neurology applications alone2; and their numbers growing rapidly. Within a decade, many people will wear such sensors all the time. The data they collect will be fed into machine-learning algorithms to monitor vital signs, spot abnormalities and track treatments.

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Nature 571, 319-321 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02143-0

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Competing Interests

S. X. declares equity (stock ownership) in Sibel Health in Evanston, Illinois, and is an inventor with a potential future royalty interest on several patents (all assigned to Northwestern University) related to the bio-integrated sensors discussed in the article. J.A.R. is a co-founder of Sibel Health and of MC10 in Lexington, Massachusetts, two companies that make technologies in the general area covered by the article.

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