Starfish-inspired wearable bioelectronic systems for physiological signal monitoring during motion and real-time heart disease diagnosis

Soft bioelectronics enable noninvasive, continuous monitoring of physiological signals, essential for precision health care. However, capturing biosignals during physical activity, particularly biomechanical signals like cardiac mechanics, remains challenging due to motion-induced interference. Inspired by starfish’s pentaradial symmetry, we introduce a starfish-like wearable bioelectronic system designed for high-fidelity signal monitoring during movement. The device, featuring five flexible, free-standing sensing arms connected to a central electronic hub, substantially reduces mechanical interference and enables high-fidelity acquisition of cardiac electrical (electrocardiogram) and mechanical (seismocardiogram and gyrocardiogram) signals during motion when coupled with signal compensation and machine learning. Using these three cardiac signal types as inputs, machine learning models deployed on smart devices achieve real-time, high-accuracy (more than 91%) diagnoses of heart conditions such as atrial fibrillation, myocardial infarction, and heart failure. These findings open previously undiscovered avenues by leveraging bioinspired device concepts combined with cutting-edge data science to boost bioelectronic performance and diagnostic precision.