Integrative Biomedical Research
Integrative Biomedical Research (Journal of Angiotherapy) | Online ISSN 3068-6326
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Volume 10 Number 1 2026
REVIEWS (Open Access)
Digital Biomarkers and Wearable Bioelectronics Across Neurological, Cardiopulmonary, and Mental Health Conditions: Clinical Evidence and Barriers to Adoption
Adesh Kolapkar 1*, Ramji Gupta 2
Integrative Biomedical Research 10 (1) 1-8 https://doi.org/10.25163/biomedical.10110909
Submitted: 19 March 2026 Revised: 06 May 2026 Accepted: 15 May 2026 Published: 17 May 2026
Abstract
Chronic diseases now account for the majority of global morbidity, yet the clinical tools used to track them remain largely episodic, relying on brief in-clinic snapshots rather than a patient's lived, day-to-day physiology. Wearable bioelectronics and the digital biomarkers (dBMs) they generate have been proposed as a remedy, but the evidence supporting their clinical utility is scattered across disparate disease literatures. We conducted a narrative synthesis of clinical, materials-science, and computational evidence on wearable-derived digital biomarkers across neurological, cardiopulmonary, inflammatory, wound-care, and mental-health conditions, drawing on peer-reviewed studies identified through the source literature and organized according to a reproducible, PRISMA-informed search and appraisal framework. Passive sensing demonstrated strong ecological validity: smartwatch-based tremor and gait metrics tracked closely with clinician-rated Parkinson's disease scales, under-mattress bed sensors detected pre-clinical heart-failure decompensation, and closed-loop smart bandages achieved autonomous, infection-triggered antibiotic release. Deep-learning models incorporating autoencoder-derived embeddings predicted depressive symptom severity with a correlation of r = 0.73, outperforming handcrafted statistical features alone. Materials innovations, particularly zwitterionic anti-fouling coatings, reduced biosensor signal drift to under 2% per day. Digital biomarkers have moved credibly beyond proof-of-concept, but scaled clinical adoption remains constrained by biosensor durability, limited external validation, fragmented health-record interoperability, and inequitable access. A coordinated engineering, regulatory, and equity-oriented roadmap is required before these tools can be trusted as everyday clinical instruments.
Keywords: digital biomarkers; wearable bioelectronics; remote patient monitoring; passive sensing; digital phenotyping; chronic disease management; clinical translation
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