Health Monitoring via Wearables: Insights from Scientific Publications and Patents (2015–2024)

Wearable health technologies enable minimally or non-invasive longitudinal monitoring of physiological and biochemical markers and are increasingly integrated into health management. In this study, we mapped the wearable health technology landscape by jointly analysing a decade of scientific publications and patent records (2015–2024) as complementary indicators of innovation and technology transfer. Using unified eligibility criteria and manual curation, we integrated 202 peer-reviewed articles and retrieved 1,713 patent records, curating the final publication and patent datasets across biofluids, biomarkers and sensing modalities. Publication activity increased sharply and peaked around 2022. Term co-occurrence analysis of publications revealed major innovation themes, from sweat microfluidics to emerging metabolite sensing. In parallel, patent keyword and topic analyses mapped dominant technological domains spanning electrochemical electrodes, microfluidic and optical biofluid platforms, and integrated multimodal systems—most prominently in ring and watch form factors, driven mainly by large medtech and consumer-electronics companies in the United States, China, and Europe. Overall, these converging signals suggest a maturation from single-analyte prototypes to integrated, connected multimodal platforms; however, cross-biofluid validation, standardisation and clinical translation remain key bottlenecks.