Thanks to products like the Fitbit wireless monitor and the Nike+ FuelBand, fitness freaks are already one step ahead of the game, tracking their daily activity, heart rate, and calorie intake and applying this data to their exercise routines.

Such devices give us some great insights into the condition of our bodies, but soon, we’re going to benefit from a totally different perspective of ourselves, thanks to a new generation of wearable and even ingestible sensors that will shed a new light on our biological processes.

Stretchable electronics

One of the most exciting of these ‘next generation’ sensors comes from MC10, a Boston-based company that has developed “stretchable electronics”, devices that can be worn on our clothing or else ‘stuck’ directly onto the skin, in the same fashion as a temporary tattoo.

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Microelectronics (electronic circuits built in a thin silicon wafer) have been around for a while – but stretchable electronics improve on them considerably, with the circuitry being engineered onto a flexible polymer material, vastly enhancing their potential. Whereas the notoriously brittle silicon wafers are quite limited in what they can actually be used for, stretchable electronics are much more durable and consequently, versatile, as their serpent-like wires simply stretch and bend with the polymers they are built upon.

The potential applications are numerous – for example, they can be used as skin sensors to monitor all kinds of biological processes, such the wearer’s heart rate, temperature, hydration levels and even their brain activity. Alternatively, they could be fitted onto medical implements like catheter balloons, which can then snake their way to the body, deep inside the heart where they can then spot defects and other cardiac problems.

All of this data can be collected and transmitted wirelessly in real-time, to a nearby computer or smartphone, and from their transmitted over the web to the wearer’s physician.

To begin with, stretchable electronics will be used for monitoring purposes only, but future possibilities go much further than that. MC10 are already quietly working on prototype sensors that carry dense arrays of sensors that could be used to ablate (basically, ‘zap’) cancerous or diseased tissues, as well as implants that could be applied directly onto the brain, sensing and stopping seizures before they happen.

Edible electronics

Taking this concept further, the British company Proteus is currently testing out its own line of medical microelectronics that can not only be worn, but also eaten, using the juices in your stomach as its primary power source.

Nicknamed “ePills”, the Digital Health Feedback System is designed to be ingested in the same way you would pop an aspirin. Upon coming into contact with the fluids in the stomach, the ePill automatically activates, and begins transmitting data to an external patch worn by the patient.

The patch records data such as the patient’s heart rate, temperature, daily activity and rest patterns, and is powered much like a potato battery, using two metals which react and generate electricity when they come into contact with water.

Admittedly, the ePill is not the most appetizing of snacks, but it’s not supposed to be either. It’s being targeted at those who are already on medication, to ensure their ‘compliance’ when it comes to taking those drugs. The ePill will be able to monitor and ensure that patients take the correct dosage at the right times, as failure to do so is one of the main reasons that medication fails. So far, ePills are still in the clinical trial phase, but it’s rumored that a number of pharmaceutical giants already have their eyes on the product.

Microneedle sensors

Microneedles are nothing new in the medical industry, but loading them up with miniscule electronic sensors instead of vaccines is a totally original concept. The technology is being applied to medical diagnostics, where the ability to extract real-time information on the body’s chemistry could have profound implications for medicine, where currently the only alternative is to take blood samples and send them off to the lab.

The biggest advantage of microneedle sensors is that they allow for continuous monitoring, rather than just testing of one-off samples every few days or weeks. One company, Sano Intelligence, is looking at developing microneedles that could be attached to a wristwatch or even just a plaster, in order to derive continuous readings from the wearer’s blood stream and keep track of everything from lactate and glucose levels, to their blood pressure or even the presence of viruses.

Ultimately, these kinds of devices could one day revolutionize medicine. They will allow for healthcare professionals to garner masses of data on their patients in a way that up until now, simply hasn’t been possible. In turn, this will allow them to come up with the best possible treatment program for their patients, based on real-time information about their condition, whilst reducing the costs associated with traditional testing and monitoring.

And just imagine what could be done with all of the big data that’s slowly amassed – supposing that these devices become fairly widespread in future, it wouldn’t be long until doctors compiled an exhaustive library that could provide an unimaginable number of new insights on dozens of different medical conditions, leading to newer, more effective treatments, and more awareness on how to prevent them.

Thanks to big data, the future will be a healthier one for us all.