Wearable Clinic: From Microneedle-Based Sensors to Next-Generation Healthcare Platforms

The rapid development of wearable biosensing calls for next-generation devices that allow continuous, real-time, and painless monitoring of health status along with responsive medical treatment. Microneedles have exhibited great potential for the direct access of dermal interstitial fluid (ISF) in a minimally invasive manner. Recent studies of microneedle-based devices have evolved from conventional off-line detection to multiplexed, wireless, and integrated sensing. In this review, the classification and fabrication techniques of microneedles are first introduced, and then the representative examples of microneedles for transdermal monitoring with different sensing modalities are summarized. State-of-the-art advances in therapeutic and closed-loop systems are presented to formulate guidelines for the development of next-generation microneedle-based healthcare platforms. The potential challenges and prospects are discussed to pave a new avenue toward pragmatic applications in the real world.