Prescription Tattoos

Very soon tattoos will be enlisted as biomedical sensors.  Right now tattoos to monitor blood glucose levels for diabetics are likely in human testing.  Here's how it works:


Carbon nanotubes have many cool properties, one being a tendency to catch and return infrared light.  This fluorescence is very predictable.  Now attach fluorescent molecules on the nanotubes to make nanosensors that react in the presence of glucose.  That reaction changes the return glow when illuminated, giving an instant and accurate measurement of blood glucose levels.


Place a couple of hundred nanosensors beneath a patch of skin on the wrist, and a watch-sized monitor worn over the patch would take dozens of measurements an hour.  Diabetic patients would have that vital information at a glance, anywhere, anytime.  Connect the monitor wirelessly to a 'smart' insulin pump and lives would be saved.  It would mean even the most unstable diabetics could live a far more normal life.


But diabetic treatment is not the only promise of this technology.  Alcohol or drug abuse could be monitored, out-patient chemotherapy administered, and any drug regimen from antibiotics to anticoagulants remotely checked via wireless.  One can imagine a 'superpatch' that provides a full blood workup with a single scan, quite valuable for patients with life-threatening conditions.


In a further future people at risk for various cancers or conditions might have early warning patches, couples trying to start a baby use fertility monitor patches, and emotion monitor patches for those trying to monitor and control feelings of anger, depression, or anxiety.


Ain't today great?