Wearable flexible microfluidic sensing technologies

Wearable biosensing technologies can provide real-time monitoring of health and disease at the point of care. By integrating flexible microfluidics with wearable biosensors, body fluids can be non-invasively sampled and analysed for reliable, clinically informative, cost-effective and continuous biomedical monitoring. In this Review, we discuss flexible wearable microfluidic sensors for health monitoring and disease diagnosis, highlighting materials and engineering considerations with regard to biofluid collection, analyte calibration, signal interferences reduction, target recognition, and sensor reusability. We outline how such flexible microfluidic-based biosensors can be designed for the analysis of sweat, saliva, tears, interstitial fluid and wound exudate, and examine their applications at the point of care. Finally, we highlight the challenges that remain to be addressed for the clinical translation of wearable flexible microfluidic sensors and discuss future possibilities, including the integration of machine learning and the Internet-of-things. © Springer Nature Limited 2023.