Smart Medical Textile Technologies: Principles, Materials, and Applications

Abstract

Smart medical textiles are an emerging class of materials that bring together textile engineering, materials science, and biomedical innovation. Designed to work in harmony with the human body, these fabrics sense physiological and biochemical changes and translate them into meaningful data. Using conductive fibres, nanocoatings, hydrogels, and Janus textile structures, they can monitor temperature, strain, respiration, pH, and ion concentration while remaining soft, breathable, and comfortable to wear. Recent advances in electrochemical biosensing have allowed fabrics to measure sweat and other body fluids with impressive sensitivity, while textile-based strain and thermal sensors now provide continuous monitoring of movement and skin temperature. Improvements in coating technology and flexible connectors have made these sensors more durable, washable, and biocompatible. At the same time, hybrid hydrogels and Janus fabrics enhance skin contact and guide body fluids toward sensing areas—an innovation that has greatly improved wound-care dressings. These “smart” bandages can detect infection risk early by monitoring pH and moisture, yet still allow the skin to breathe. Despite rapid progress, key challenges remain. Devices must be calibrated to handle variation in body fluids and movement, and global standards for  washability, durability, and safety are still developing. Achieving energy independence through small triboelectric and thermoelectric generators is another essential step toward fully self-powered systems. Looking ahead, integrating artificial intelligence and multimodal sensing will enable more reliable interpretation of complex biological data. By combining comfort, intelligence, and sustainability, smart medical textiles are moving from experimental prototypes to practical healthcare tools capable of transforming personal health monitoring and wound management.