Science and technology seems to steadily progress and the health field is one of the main industries that is reaping the benefits of the new innovations. As our health statuses and test results seem to be at our fingertips, people become more and more health conscious. Researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas have recently designed a biosensor that is capable of checking glucose levels of the person who wears it.
"We've been developing various thin, soft and flexible skin-mounted devices as a next-generation platform for wearable technologies for a few years now," said Dr. John Rogers, the senior author of the study as well as a materials scientist and director of Northwestern University's Center for Bio-Integrated Electronics in Evanston, Illinois. "Now, we've developed such a device to capture and analyze sweat."
The sensor sticks to the skin and is around the size of a quarter, which is a drastic upgrade in comparison to the handheld glucose reading devices that are currently being used. Such devices needed to pluck the user’s finger to draw a small amount of blood in order to read glucose levels, a task most people suffering with diabetes found daunting.
"Fitness trackers that monitor heart rate and step count are very popular, but wearable, non-invasive biosensors would be extremely beneficial for managing diseases," said Dr. Shalini Prasad, a professor of bioengineering at the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science.
"We used known properties of textiles and weaves in our design," said Prasad. "What was innovative was the way we incorporated and positioned the electrodes onto this textile in such a way that allows a very small volume of sweat to spread effectively through the surface."
Sweat and blood are not the only bodily secretions that have been tested to see if they can get glucose readings. Google Laboratories is currently working on a contact lense that can read glucose levels from tears. While none of these new sensors have hit the market or even yet been licensed, there is no doubt that they will soon make invasive blood collecting glucose readers obsolete.
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