Wearable and micro and nano technologies for pHealth: R&D achievements to enable future innovation

The fast developments in information and communication technology as well as R&D work on micro and nano systems in biology and biomedical engineering are stimulating the explosive growth in life sciences, which is leading to an ever increasing understanding of life at sub-cellular and molecular level and so revolutionizing and personalizing diagnosis and therapy. By bringing these parallel developments to biomedicine and health, ultrafast and sensitive systems can be developed to prevention & lifestyle support, to early diagnose or treat diseases with high accuracy and less invasiveness, and to support body functions or to replace lost functionality. Such pHealth systems will enable the delivery of individualized health services with better access & outcomes at lower costs than previously deemed possible, making a substantial contribution to bring healthcare expenditures under control and increase its productivity.