Focus on wearable sensors

Wearable technologies have the potential to transform our ability to monitor physiology not only in the clinical trial and outpatient settings, but also in the context of health and wellness. These replace monitoring available only in a hospital setting with minimally invasive devices that can be worn and are capable of high-frequency and/or continuous sampling. But only a handful of analytes are known to be faithfully measureable from easily accessible sites, and most of these analytes are relevant to monitoring physical exertion in athletes rather than to broader applications or to disease (see Review by Heikenfeld et al.). Engineers, bioinformaticians, clinicians and biologists are working to develop sensors that access bodily fluids to detect important biomarkers while interfacing seamlessly with skin (see Perspective by Someya and Amagai).

Although wearable biosensors as a whole have not yet been widely successful commercially or been incorporated into clinical decision-making, the promise of measuring analytes such as glucose continuously (see News Feature) and non-invasively continue to drive investment, intellectual property (see Patent Table) and technological development in the field (see Review by Kim et al.). They will also need to overcome several economic, technological and cultural challenges in handling data from these devices, including data analysis, management, security and privacy (see Editorial).