You pull your smartphone out of your pocket, tap the screen, and there it is—your heartbeat, sleep patterns, stress levels, all measured and neatly displayed. This isn’t the distant future; it’s today, thanks to wearable biosensors.
Not that long ago, you had to go to the doctor to get this sort of information. But now, you have it all in the palm of your hand; sometimes, quite literally.
There have been a number of promising developments recently in the use of wearable biosensors for the monitoring of different health-related issues. Thanks to medical and pharmaceutical advancements, as well as greater public health standards in many parts of the world, the global population, on the whole, is aging. With this increase in average lifespan comes a higher incidence of certain kinds of diseases.
How do biosensors operate, and what forms do they take?
Wearable biosensors are more than fashionable accessories; they are health guardians. Monitoring your vital signs, activity levels, and even your emotions, they can detect deviations from your normal patterns. A sudden change in heart rate, a restless night—these are no longer mere feelings but quantifiable data.
In the past, the only wearable biosensors have been simple ones that monitor common physical features such as temperature. But now, these sensors detect a range of biological signals, such as electrical impulses from your heart or the glucose levels in your sweat. They’re like little detectives, tirelessly investigating the clues your body leaves behind.
The way that advanced biosensors work is by monitoring either fermentation systems and biocatalysts, or different kinds of biological materials, such as enzymes, whole cells, and tissues. Thanks to the biochemical markers that they use for measuring purposes, the sensors are able to monitor and report physiological data in real time.
Think of the biosensor as an interpreter, translating the language of your body into something you can understand. It starts with the sensors, often as tiny electrodes, that rest gently against your skin. They’re listening, feeling, and reacting to what’s happening inside you.
Then, once a small processor within the wearable device takes over, turning these biological signals into digital information. This stage is the complex language of your body is summarized into a few concise insights. Granted, the information these sensors offers is never exhaustive — but it can be useful in highlighting how to optimize your health.
The algorithms used to interpret these signals are also complex. Many sensors use sophisticated AI algorithms to calculate people’s conditions using the data they collect through biological materials. This added sophistication enables biosensors to track more data and analyze the data in a better fashion.
A healthy relationship with technology
Wearable biosensors are a glimpse into a future where technology and health form a symbiotic relationship. You’re no longer a passive observer of your health; you’re an active participant.
The possibilities are endless. By now, we all know that smartwatches can track your heart rate — but did you know that they can also track some arrhythmias? Or that they can uncover whether you’re sleeping well enough or whether you’re too stressed? That’s just the start of it.
Diabetics monitoring glucose levels without a prick, heart patients receiving real-time alerts, athletes understanding their bodies’ limits—all these are not mere ideas but realities in the making.
Continuous health monitoring means that potential problems can be detected early, even before you notice any symptoms. Want to lose weight? Your biosensor can guide your journey. Concerned about stress? Your device can help you find patterns and triggers. It’s health democratized, a shift from a one-size-fits-all approach to something tailored just for you.
Storing and monitoring data
But wait, there’s a flip side to this coin. With all this personal data floating around, what about privacy? It’s a question that resonates deeply in a connected world.
Your health data is no longer confined to a paper file in your doctor’s office. It’s in the cloud, accessible and valuable. What if it falls into the wrong hands? If we want to truly empower people and democratize healthcare, we need to address the issue of privacy, lest this technology becomes a double-edged sword.
In addition to collecting the data that biosensors collect, patients need to have a way of storing it for their own, as well as their doctors’ purposes. There are now sophisticated software programs that can help all parties involved keep track of patients’ progress while also keeping your data safe and secure. The better solutions will include the following features:
- A cloud-based app that integrates with the sensors themselves so that data can be transferred, stored, and analyzed in real-time.
- A cloud that will allow you to optimize the battery time of the biosensors. More sophisticated programs have the ability to sense and control output so that sensors last as long as possible without needing to be charged.
- A program that allows for a diversity of outputs so that data can be seen on different devices simultaneously by doctors, patients, and related medical staff.
- End-to-end encryption keeps data encrypted from the moment it leaves your device until it reaches its destination. Even if someone were to intercept the information, they would see nothing but a jumbled mess.
- Data anonymization — the process of removing or changing personal information so that it cannot be connected back to you. The information is still useful for analysis but doesn’t reveal who you are.
- Regular updates. Technology changes, and so do the threats. Robust solutions must include regular updates to tackle new security challenges.
- Secure cloud infrastructure. Many wearable biosensors utilize cloud storage for data. From firewalls to intrusion detection systems, these clouds should be digital fortresses designed to keep your data safe from unauthorized access.
What are some of the current applications?
We’ve briefly mentioned some of the potential applications, but let’s dive into a bit more detail. Biosensors are becoming available for an increasingly wide range of uses, many of them due to the sharp increase in the prevalence of certain kinds of diseases.
For example, the number of diabetics in the world is expected to rise to 643 million by 2030, with 75% of them living in low- or middle-income countries. Because of this rapid rise, it has become critical that the medical establishment devise methods to help manage the problem. There are now small, unobtrusive patches that people can attach to their skin which will monitor glucose levels in real-time and help diabetics understand their insulin needs. There are also once-daily insulin patches that people can wear to provide the insulin that people need for a full day. The increased use of these patches will make a significant difference in the lives of many diabetics.
Cardiovascular problems are another area that has been on the rise particularly since the pandemic, as many people have heart-related complications following Covid. Therefore, this has become another area in which the wearable biosensor industry is growing. For people who suffer from heart disease, there is now a sensor that can be worn on the wrist to detect a particular protein known as troponin-I in the blood. When the heart muscle becomes damaged, troponin-I enters the bloodstream, and the sensor can detect its presence immediately by means of infrared light sent through a Bluetooth device.
In the area of rheumatology, there are new biosensor gloves that help to monitor hand movement and detect the severity of a patient’s rheumatoid arthritis. The gloves measure flex sensors in their fingers, along with an Inertial Measurement Unit in the wrists. The data collected from the sensors is calculated according to algorithms to provide a picture of the patient’s condition.
Wearables are also making inroads into mental health monitoring. For those grappling with anxiety or depression, sensors can track changes in mood and alert a caregiver or mental health professional. It’s a gentle, non-intrusive way to provide support when it’s needed most.
Great potential
The potential of wearable biosensors is only beginning to unfold. They have the promise to transform healthcare, to make it more personalized, more immediate, and more in tune with who you are. But it’s a journey that we must take with caution, keeping in mind the ethics, the privacy, and the human touch that makes healthcare more than just a hard science.
The revolution that wearable biosensors bring to healthcare is not merely about data and technology. It’s about empowerment, connection, and individuality. It’s about you taking charge of your health, and having the insights you need to make the best decisions for yourself.
The technology is coming — it’s up to us to make it work for the people.
