Mind the Gap: Wearable Lactate and Glucose Monitors for Hospitalized Patients

Continuous and non-invasive monitoring of metabolic parameters, particularly glucose and lactate, represents a critical advance in inpatient medicine where current technologies fall short. Wearable sensors are widely available for glucose, and are commonly and successfully used in ambulatory settings. More recently, wearable sensors have become available for lactate, and these devices have a proven role in exercise physiology literature. In the inpatient setting, metabolic monitoring of glucose and lactate is primarily done via invasive blood draws, which is resource-intensive and leads to delays in data collection. This new frontier of wearable continuous monitors has the potential to transform inpatient care by rapidly detecting metabolic changes and eliminating existing gaps in monitoring. Further, these advances in wearable technology open pathways for integrating lactate and glucose metrics into Early Warning Scores (EWS), enhancing their predictive capabilities. The adoption of wearable lactate and glucose in the inpatient setting has the potential to revolutionize a clinician's ability to identify vulnerable patients at risk for deterioration while guiding precision treatment.