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Integration of a smart contact lens and a heat patch realizes personal management of ocular surface diseases wirelessly., Wearable electronic devices that can monitor physiological signals of the human body to provide biomedical information have been drawing extensive interests for sustainable personal health management. Here, we report a human pilot trial of a soft, smart contact lens and a skin-attachable therapeutic device for wireless monitoring and therapy of chronic ocular surface inflammation (OSI). As a diagnostic device, this smart contact lens enables real-time measurement of the concentration of matrix metalloproteinase-9, a biomarker for OSI, in tears using a graphene field-effect transistor. As a therapeutic device, we also fabricated a stretchable and transparent heat patch attachable on the human eyelid conformably. Both diagnostic and therapeutic devices can be incorporated using a smartphone for their wireless communications, thereby achieving instantaneous diagnosis of OSI and automated hyperthermia treatments. Furthermore, in vivo tests using live animals and human subjects confirm their good biocompatibility and reliability as a noninvasive, mobile health care solution.

This study presents a smart, soft contact lens that provides real-time sensing for the wireless immunosensing of cortisol., Despite various approaches to immunoassay and chromatography for monitoring cortisol concentrations, conventional methods require bulky external equipment, which limits their use as mobile health care systems. Here, we describe a human pilot trial of a soft, smart contact lens for real-time detection of the cortisol concentration in tears using a smartphone. A cortisol sensor formed using a graphene field-effect transistor can measure cortisol concentration with a detection limit of 10 pg/ml, which is low enough to detect the cortisol concentration in human tears. In addition, this soft contact lens only requires the integration of this cortisol sensor with transparent antennas and wireless communication circuits to make a smartphone the only device needed to operate the lens remotely without obstructing the wearer’s view. Furthermore, in vivo tests using live rabbits and the human pilot experiment confirmed the good biocompatibility and reliability of this lens as a noninvasive, mobile health care solution.