For people living with cardiac or neurological conditions, monitoring organ activity is an important part of diagnosis and treatment. But existing technology relies heavily on electrically based systems that often require a network of electrodes to be attached directly to the organ site.

Now, a team of UNSW engineers from UNSW School of Biomedical Engineering have developed a fully flexible ‘optrode’ – an optical sensor that converts the body’s electrical signals directly into light signals. Designed to mimic the softness of human tissue, the device demonstrated a 98.4% viability rate, paving the way for safer and less invasive long-term monitoring technologies.