UC Irvine

Wearable devices have the potential to revolutionize the healthcare industry. Due to their stretchability and/or flexibility, these devices can reach conformal contact with body parts that they are interfacing with. This property grants wearable devices more comfortable wearability and allows them to obtain high-quality signals, effectively enabling long-term wear and continuous monitoring of important information that is relevant to patients’ health. This continuous information could be used for tracking, predicting, and preventing acute decompensation that typically requires timely treatment. The work presented here demonstrates a few wearable sensors that specifically focus on continuously monitoring vital signs useful for monitoring cardiovascular diseases, including rehabilitation. Specifically, a soft, capacitive sensor used for monitoring blood pressure, an LC-based sensor design used for tracking interstitial fluid pressure, and a wireless magnetic resonator-based network used for joint monitoring are presented in this dissertation