Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) announced on July 14 the development of a wearable microneedle patch capable of continuously measuring drug levels beneath the skin and wirelessly transmitting data to a smartphone in real time. The study, published in Device, highlights the potential for wearable technologies to provide ongoing information about therapies inside the body, beyond just tracking physical activity and vital signs.
Currently, medicines that require careful dosing are typically monitored through periodic blood tests followed by laboratory analysis. These methods offer only momentary snapshots of drug concentrations and can be slow to process. The KAUST team designed their platform to investigate whether continuous monitoring could give a more comprehensive view of how medicines move through the body over time.
The device uses an array of tiny microneedles that access interstitial fluid just beneath the skin. Miniaturized electronics and Bluetooth connectivity allow for continuous measurement of drug concentrations, with results displayed on a smartphone via a lightweight wearable system. In demonstrations using vancomycin—an antibiotic requiring precise dosing—the device successfully tracked changing drug concentrations over several hours during laboratory experiments and preclinical studies.
Weighing 6.7 grams, the complete device integrates microneedle sensing, electrochemical biosensors, onboard electronics, wireless communication, and smartphone visualization into one system. While further development and clinical validation are needed before use in healthcare settings, researchers say these findings show that continuous wearable drug monitoring is feasible using this minimally invasive sensor platform.
Although initially tested with an antibiotic medication, researchers believe their sensing platform could potentially be adapted for other drugs requiring careful dose monitoring in future applications.
