In spite of advances in electronics and internet technologies, current healthcare remains hospital‐centred. Disruptive technologies are required to translate state‐of‐art wearable devices into next‐generation patient‐centered diagnosis and therapy. In this review, recent advances in the emerging field of soft wearable materials and devices are summarized. A prerequisite for such future healthcare devices is the need of novel materials to be mechanically compliant, electrically conductive, and biologically compatible. It is begun with an overview of the two viable design strategies reported in the literatures, which is followed by description of state‐of‐the‐art wearable healthcare devices for monitoring physical, electrophysiological, chemical, and biological signals. Self‐powered wearable bioenergy devices are also covered and sensing systems, as well as feedback‐controlled wearable closed‐loop biodiagnostic and therapy systems. Finally, it is concluded with an overall summary and future perspective.
Time-lapse mechanical properties of stem cell derived cardiac organoids are important biological cues for understanding contraction dynamics of human heart tissues, cardiovascular functions and diseases. However, it remains difficult to directly, instantaneously and accurately characterize such mechanical properties in real-time and in situ because cardiac organoids are topologically complex, three-dimensional soft tissues suspended in biological media, which creates a mismatch in mechanics and topology with state-of-the-art force sensors that are typically rigid, planar and bulky. Here, we present a soft resistive force-sensing diaphragm based on ultrasensitive resistive nanocracked platinum film, which can be integrated into an all-soft culture well via an oxygen plasma-enabled bonding process. We show that a reliable organoid-diaphragm contact can be established by an ‘Atomic Force Microscope-like’ engaging process. This allows for instantaneous detection of the organoids’ minute contractile forces and beating patterns during electrical stimulation, resuscitation, drug dosing, tissue culture, and disease modelling.
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