Diagnostic tests for measuring various health parameters usually involve drawing blood, which is invasive and kind of icky. But a team of researchers at the University of Cincinnati and the US Air Force Research Lab have invented a much less painful system that involves using sweat to track health.

The system involves a Band-Aid-like adhesive patch that uses microfluidics to collect sweat from the skin. You don’t have to run a marathon to work up a sweat; the device will use an electrical process called iontophoresis to stimulate the production of sweat. The process applies a very small electrical charge to the skin – so small that the pain experienced by the patient is minimal. The method can keep sweat flowing from a very small area of the skin for hours or even days if the researchers need it to.

The patch then wicks away small amounts of sweat via microfluidic channels for analysis. Super-absorbent hydrogels keep the sweat pumping even after it’s passed through the sensors by soaking up the old sweat so that it doesn’t mix with new sweat. The electronics in the patch have no power source of their own; the patch contains a small RFID-like chip that is externally powered by a smartphone.

It’s this smartphone that provides the analysis, as well. Initially the team had their collective eye on using the patch to monitor athletes’ health. Knowing when your electrolytes are low can be crucial when you’re training, which is lucky because electrolytes are simple to measure. The team thinks they will soon be able to measure other factors like lactic acid, metabolites, proteins, amino acids, and creatinine with the patch. Although measuring glucose, or blood sugar levels, would be an amazing use of this technology, science has yet to figure out how to do that using sweat.

The system could be useful for a huge number of people and situations. Premature babies could be monitored for any changes in their general health. Medication levels in a patient’s sweat could help doctors to determine correct dosages. Military members could be monitored in the field for signs of muscle exertion, injury, and exhaustion. A large number of other physical factors can be read through a person’s sweat, so there’s a good chance that in the future you’ll be experiencing fewer blood draws but more tiny electroshocks to analyze your sweat.

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Home health trackers are currently most or less limited to recording your activity level and tracking your weight. A device called Cue is changing the game by taking actual biological measurements using biofluids like blood or saliva. The Cue’s microfluidic system and bio-sensors can give you a much more complete picture of your overall health than any other health tracker.

Cue tracks five different aspects of your body’s health: inflammation, influenza, testosterone, fertility, and Vitamin D. There are separate cartridges for each health metric; you place a biological sample on a Sample Wand and insert it into the appropriate cartridge, which is enclosed in the larger Bluetooth-enabled Cue box.

The box analyzes the sample and sends the results straight to the Cue smartphone app. The app tracks changes in the health metrics over time, giving you a clear picture of whether you are getting enough Vitamin D, telling you when you’re ovulating, or helping you figure out whether you have a cold or the flu.

You can test yourself as often as you want, which will no doubt be a huge help to some people who previously only had access to these tests through expensive doctor visits. Of course, the Cue involves a substantial initial investment: it is available at a pre-launch price of $199. That price will go up to $300 when it launches in Spring 2015. Additional Sample Wands, cartridges, and a carrying case will also be available post-launch.

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There isn’t a material much more effective for channeling and releasing extra moisture than human skin, but a team of researchers at the University of California, Davis are developing a material inspired by that gold standard. The waterproof fabric has channels that pull moisture away from where it shouldn’t be (presumably your skin) and drains it away on the outside – even when the channels are completely saturated already. This new type of moisture-wicking material could be the next big thing in workout gear.

The team used hydrophilic (water-attracting) threads into fabric made from a hydrophobic (water-repelling) material. The material could be produced with existing textile manufacturing technology so clothing manufacturers could begin producing it easily. By adjusting the patterns of the hydrophilic threads, the team can control where sweat from the body is directed and where it is released from the clothing.

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On-the-spot paper medical sensors are already used for a few applications such as pregnancy tests, but there is so much more that can be done with these low-cost tests. A team of chemists at the University of Texas at Austin has made significant strides in this field by developing a 3D paper sensor that can detect HIV and Malaria in seconds and for the cost of around 10 cents. The news is important because in remote locations and in countries without advanced medical facilities, traditional tests for these ailments may be too expensive – or the facilities to transfer blood samples and test results may simply not exist.

Besides using hydrophobic material such as wax to create tiny channels on the surface of the paper sensors, the chemists embedded specific reactive agents in the paper. The paper sensors are folded up and a biological sample introduced. The channels direct the biological sample – blood, urine or saliva – to the reactive agents, which indicate if the sample contains the biological markers for a specific disease. When the sensor is unfolded it can be read by eye with no special equipment needed. The sensors don’t need to be made or folded in high-tech facilities, so the production could be handled in the very developing nations that would most benefit from using them.

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The awesome science of microfluidics has the potential to revolutionize diagnostics, particularly in developing countries where well-equipped labs are hard to come by. Small, inexpensive and accurate diagnostic tools like this one from Columbia University researchers could save countless lives by detecting deadly diseases like HIV without the need for complicated equipment.

The credit card-size device is called mChip. It requires only a tiny drop of blood to detect HIV – and maybe most exciting of all is the fact that the device only costs around $1. Conventional HIV tests require a skilled person to draw blood and lab equipment to test it, but the mChip is like a self-contained lab that detected 100% of HIV and syphilis cases in studies.

While the availability of drugs to treat HIV and other STDs has been improving in recent years, the professor who spearheaded the mChip project says that the real challenge lies in the diagnosis. Many people in developing nations live too far away from hospitals to travel for the tests; and if they do, many of them don’t return for the results. The mChip offers reliable results in just 15 minutes. In undeveloped and developed countries alike, detection of serious diseases is the first step toward treatment, making the mChip a very important innovation.

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