Engineering news
Developed by engineers at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, the wearable device measures the electrical properties of moles and other features on the skin without using internal chips or batteries.
Early detection is critical for successful treatment of skin cancer, especially the most dangerous form of melanoma. “Current methods often rely on visual inspection, which can be subjective and may miss early warning signs. More advanced diagnostic tools such as biopsies and imaging are typically only available in specialised clinics,” a Wake Forest announcement said.
The new patch is placed directly on the skin and works wirelessly with a small reader device to measure the bioimpedance of skin lesions, which indicates how easily electrical signals pass through living tissue. Cancerous areas often have different electrical properties to healthy skin, so the patch can help identify abnormal areas that may require further evaluation.
The team recruited 10 volunteers to test the effectiveness of the flexible device. Each participant had the patch placed on both a pigmented skin lesion (such as a mole) and nearby healthy skin. The patch used safe electrical signals to measure bioimpedance, after which standard statistical methods were used to confirm significant differences between healthy and abnormal skin.
The study showed that the patch could distinguish between healthy skin and spots that might be a concern, picking up unique electrical signals from suspicious moles or lesions regardless of skin tone.
“Skin cancer is most treatable when caught early, but many people don’t have easy access to specialised dermatology care,” said assistant professor Mohammad Moghimi, the study’s principal investigator. “Our wearable patch is designed to be affordable, comfortable and easy to use, even outside of a doctor’s office. It could empower patients and primary care providers to monitor suspicious skin lesions and seek help sooner.”
According to Moghimi, the patch is unique because it does not require batteries or chips, making it lightweight, disposable and cost-effective. Unlike visual inspection, the patch provides objective, numerical data about the skin’s health, reducing the risk of unnecessary biopsies and helping clinicians make more informed decisions.
The patch can detect changes in small or visually ambiguous lesions, the announcement added, while the numerical data could make it easier to store and share results.
“Our goal is to make early skin cancer detection accessible to everyone,” said Moghimi. “By providing a tool that can be used at home or in primary care settings, we hope to reduce the number of missed or late diagnoses and improve patient outcomes.”
The team plans to improve the patch by integrating conductive hydrogel electrodes for even better performance and comfort. The next phase will involve larger clinical studies to test the patch’s effectiveness in real-world settings and determine how well it can distinguish between benign and malignant lesions.
The study was recently published in
NPJ Biomedical Innovations.
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