Engineers have developed and tested a new wearable device capable of monitoring a person’s blood sugar, alcohol and lactate levels all at once, detailing their work in Nature Biomedical Engineering.[1]

The device in question — not much larger than a small stack of quarters — is applied to the wearer’s upper arm using microneedles. The tips of the microneedles react to the person’s interstitial fluid, communicating data directly to a custom-designed smartphone app.

The team behind the device say it helps emphasize the relationship between changes in a person’s blood sugar and lifestyle choices they make related to diet, exercise and drinking alcohol.

“This is like a complete lab on the skin,” co-corresponding author Joseph Wang, DSc, a professor of nanoengineering at the University of California San Diego (UC San Diego), said in a statement. “It is capable of continuously measuring multiple biomarkers at the same time, allowing users to monitor their health and wellness as they perform their daily activities.”

“We’re starting at a really good place with this technology in terms of clinical validity and relevance,” added co-corresponding author Patrick Mercier, BSc, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at UC San Diego. “That lowers the barriers to clinical translation.”