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  • Review Article
  • Published:

Skin-interfaced wireless biosensors for perinatal and paediatric health

Nature Reviews Bioengineering volume 1, pages 631–647 (2023)Cite this article

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An Author Correction to this article was published on 07 August 2023

This article has been updated

Abstract

Continuous monitoring of the parameters that define physiological health status is an essential aspect of modern care for critically ill patients, particularly for vulnerable populations. Current hospital-grade systems for such purposes involve sensors taped to the skin, with hard-wired connections to large, expensive data-acquisition and display systems. Soft, wireless, skin-interfaced alternatives reduce associated burdens on the patients, simplify operations in clinical care, minimize risks of adhesive-induced skin injuries and reduce the costs of monitoring, as recently demonstrated in devices designed for maternal, foetal and paediatric health. The implications extend beyond hospital and home settings in well resourced areas of the globe to remote clinics in low and middle-income countries. This Review summarizes the latest progress in this research area, with an emphasis on the growing range of options in device configurations and form factors, sensor modalities and operational features. Examples of technologies capable of monitoring all key vital signs as well as various unconventional metrics of health status highlight the transition from academic prototypes to manufactured systems and scaled deployments.

Key points

  • Continuous physiological monitoring is an essential aspect of modern healthcare for the critically ill, especially perinatal and paediatric patients.

  • Wireless monitoring technologies reduce patient discomfort, risk of iatrogenic injury and healthcare provider burden while informing and guiding many aspects of clinical care.

  • Soft, compliant, miniaturized skin-interfaced sensors enable safe and reliable connectivity to the skin of the most fragile patients at different body locations, without straps, bands or abrasive adhesives.

  • Cost-effective engineering designs and manufacturing techniques allow for the practical use of advanced technologies in low-resource settings.

  • Broad, multi-modal data streams collected in healthcare facilities or in home settings can serve as the basis for a data-centric approach for early intervention and patient care.

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Fig. 1: Comparisons of traditional and emerging monitoring technologies for maternal and paediatric health.
Fig. 2: Diagrams of physiological markers of health status from different patients.
Fig. 3: Diagrams and examples of device architectures and body interfaces.
Fig. 4: Wireless biosensors for maternal and foetal monitoring.
Fig. 5: Wireless biosensors for paediatric monitoring.

Change history

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Acknowledgements

We especially thank H. Jeong for providing advice on maternal health. J.K. acknowledges support from the KIST Institutional Program (project numbers 2E32341 and 2E32349) and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (grant number RS-2023–00211342). S.S.K. acknowledges support from the KIST Institutional Program (project number 2E32341).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Joohee Kim, Seonggwang Yoo, Claire Liu, Sung Soo Kwak.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Joohee Kim, Seonggwang Yoo, Claire Liu, Sung Soo Kwak, Jessica R. Walter, Shuai Xu & John A. Rogers

  2. Bionics Research Center, Biomedical Research Division, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Joohee Kim & Sung Soo Kwak

  3. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA

    Jessica R. Walter

  4. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Shuai Xu & John A. Rogers

  5. Sibel Health, Chicago, IL, USA

    Shuai Xu

  6. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    John A. Rogers

  7. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    John A. Rogers

  8. Department of Neurological Surgery, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA

    John A. Rogers

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  1. Joohee Kim
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Contributions

J.K., S.Y., C.L. and S.S.K. contributed equally to the figure design and manuscript writing. J.R.W. and S.X. reviewed the article. J.A.R. wrote, edited and reviewed the article. All authors contributed to the discussion.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John A. Rogers.

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Competing interests

S.X. and J.A.R. are co-founders and S.X. is an employee at a startup company (Sibel Health) that is involved in commercialization of some of the technologies covered by this Review. J.R.W. has a spouse with a commercial interest in the technologies described in this Review. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Reviews Bioengineering thanks Alex Chortos, Martin Kaltenbrunner, Do Hwan Kim and Carolyn Lund for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Kim, J., Yoo, S., Liu, C. et al. Skin-interfaced wireless biosensors for perinatal and paediatric health. Nat Rev Bioeng 1, 631–647 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44222-023-00090-0

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