Wearable ultrasound patches

Also known as Stick-on ultrasound patches, Ultrasound stickers, Wearable ultrasound imagers

Wearable ultrasound patches are thin, stretchable devices that stick to the skin and send sound waves into the body to image or monitor blood flow and tissue. Research groups at UC San Diego and MIT have shown them working in small human studies for periods of hours up to two days, but they are still tethered to external equipment and no regulated product was found in the sources reviewed.

Research and prototypesDemonstratedReviewed 21 Oct 2026
AI illustration · Illustrative scene, not a photograph of the specific device or experiment.

In plain language

Ultrasound is the sound-based imaging used in hospitals to look at the heart, blood vessels and unborn babies. Standard machines are bulky, and a scan usually needs a trained operator holding a probe. A wearable ultrasound patch tries to do the same job from a device that sticks to the skin, so that a person can be monitored for hours instead of minutes.

So far, the work has been done in research labs. Groups led by Sheng Xu at UC San Diego and Xuanhe Zhao at MIT have built soft patches with arrays of tiny sound transducers. In published studies, the patches showed heart activity, blood flow, muscle changes and organs such as the stomach while people went about normal tasks, or during exercise. These are proof-of-concept results in small groups of volunteers, not routine clinical use.

Technical explanation

Most wearable patches use piezoelectric transducers, which convert electrical signals into sound and back again, embedded in a stretchable polymer or elastomer. Phased arrays, which fire many small elements with timed delays, can steer the beam to tissue that is not directly under the patch. In a 2021 Nature Biomedical Engineering paper, the Xu group reported a stretchable phased-array patch that monitored haemodynamic signals from tissue up to 14 cm beneath the skin, with beam steering to areas not directly below the patch.

Other designs focus on imaging quality and wear. In 2022, MIT researchers led by Xuanhe Zhao reported a stick-on, bioadhesive ultrasound design that gave continuous imaging of internal organs for 48 hours. In 2023, the Xu group reported a stretchable ultrasonic array that performs repeated elastography, which measures tissue stiffness, to depths up to 4 cm at 0.5 mm spatial resolution. Later work moved to whole-organ imaging: a 2023 Nature paper described a wearable cardiac imager worn for up to 24 hours, including during exercise, and a 2024 Nature paper described a conformal patch for transcranial volumetric imaging and cerebral blood flow monitoring.

The main technical problems are signal coupling through skin, power and data links, and the trade-off between depth and resolution. Several current prototypes are connected by cable to a computer or to benchtop instruments, and their wireless versions are described as work in progress. Published results report durations and depths, but the sources reviewed do not give long-term skin safety data or validated absolute accuracy figures for the cardiac imager.

What the evidence says

Each statement is typed by the strength of its evidence and linked to the source that supports it.

Demonstrated Shown in a published experiment, test or shipping product.

A 2021 Nature Biomedical Engineering study reported a stretchable phased-array ultrasound patch that monitors haemodynamic signals from tissue up to 14 cm beneath the skin, with beam steering to areas not directly below the patch.

Sources: [1] · Abstract and extended data, as quoted in search summaries

In healthy volunteers, the 2021 phased-array patch was reported to monitor cardiac Doppler spectra, central blood flow waveforms and cerebral blood supply in real time.

Sources: [1] · Abstract, as quoted in search summaries · medium confidence

A 2023 Nature Biomedical Engineering study reported repeated non-invasive elastography of tissue to depths up to 4 cm beneath the skin at 0.5 mm spatial resolution.

Sources: [2] · Abstract, as quoted in search summaries

A 2023 Nature paper described a wearable cardiac ultrasound imager, about the size of a postage stamp, that can be worn for up to 24 hours and keeps working during strenuous exercise.

Sources: [3], [4] · Press release, 'Wear time' and 'Exercise' sections · medium confidence

MIT researchers reported stick-on ultrasound stickers that gave continuous imaging of major blood vessels and internal organs, including the heart, lungs and stomach, for 48 hours.

Sources: [5] · Press release text · medium confidence

A 2024 Nature paper described a conformal ultrasound patch for transcranial volumetric imaging and continuous cerebral blood flow monitoring, tested in 36 healthy volunteers, whose measurements closely matched those from a conventional ultrasound probe.

Sources: [6], [7] · Press release, 'Comparison' section · medium confidence

The current cardiac and MIT prototypes, and the 2024 cerebral patch, are connected by cables or to external instruments, and wireless versions were still in development in the sources reviewed.

Sources: [4], [5], [7] · Connection sections of each press release

Reported, unverified Stated by a company or team but not independently confirmed.

Sheng Xu co-founded Softsonics with Shu Xiang to commercialise the cardiac ultrasound patch, and no FDA clearance for it was found in the sources reviewed.

Sources: [4], [7] · Commercialisation paragraph · medium confidence

Proposed A design or plan that has not yet been built or tested.

The authors of the cardiac imager propose B-mode imaging, a soft imager that covers multiple positions with larger probes, a smaller back-end system and a machine learning model that generalises to more subjects as next steps.

Sources: [4] · Next steps · medium confidence

Limitations and open problems

  • Human evidence so far comes from small groups of volunteers. The 2024 cerebral blood flow study used 36 healthy volunteers and did not test patients with neurological conditions; testing in patients was described as a next step.
  • Several prototypes are tethered. The cardiac patch is connected by cables to a computer, the 2024 cerebral patch is connected by cable to a power source and a computer, and the MIT stickers must be connected to instruments that turn reflected sound into images. Wireless versions were described as work in progress.
  • Reported wear times of 24 hours (cardiac, 2023) and 48 hours (MIT, 2022) come from individual studies. The sources reviewed do not describe long-term wear trials, skin irritation testing or repeated daily use.
  • The cardiac imager press coverage gives no numerical accuracy figures. Its published accuracy claims are qualitative in the sources reviewed, so comparison with clinical echocardiography is not established here.
  • No FDA clearance, CE mark or other regulatory approval was found in the sources reviewed for the Softsonics cardiac patch or for the academic prototypes. Regulatory status is therefore unverified and should be checked against regulator databases before any clinical claim is made.

Possible future uses

Speculative

Ideas, not predictions. None of these has been demonstrated.

  • Stick-on cardiac screening in primary care, where a patch could replace an echocardiogram for some first-line checks. This is untested and would need regulatory and clinical validation.
  • Continuous monitoring of muscle injury or recovery during rehabilitation, based on the muscle microdamage and elastography work.
  • Ongoing monitoring of blood flow to the brain for people at risk of stroke, building on the cerebral blood flow patch.

Timeline

  1. 16 Jul 2021Xu group reports a stretchable phased-array ultrasound patch that monitors deep-tissue haemodynamics to 14 cm in healthy volunteers in Nature Biomedical Engineering. Sources: [1]
  2. Jul 2022MIT and Mayo Clinic researchers report stick-on ultrasound stickers for continuous imaging of blood vessels and organs for up to 48 hours in Science. Sources: [5]
  3. 25 Jan 2023Nature publishes a wearable cardiac ultrasound imager that can be worn for up to 24 hours and works during strenuous exercise. Sources: [3], [4]
  4. May 2023Nature Biomedical Engineering reports stretchable ultrasonic arrays for three-dimensional elastography of deep tissue to up to 4 cm at 0.5 mm resolution. Sources: [2]
  5. 22 May 2024Nature publishes a conformal ultrasound patch for transcranial volumetric imaging and continuous cerebral blood flow monitoring, tested in 36 healthy volunteers. Sources: [6], [7]

Futures this could help bring about

AI illustration
How far away?

Ultrasound scanners you wear like a plaster

Engineering prototypes · 4 of 7 steps done

Related breakthroughs

Glossary

Piezoelectric transducer
A component that turns electrical signals into mechanical vibrations, such as sound waves, and turns returning vibrations back into electrical signals.
Phased array
A group of small transducers fired with timed delays so that the combined beam can be steered to different points in the body.
Elastography
An imaging method that maps how stiff tissue is by measuring how it deforms under vibration or pressure.
Doppler ultrasound
An ultrasound method that measures the speed and direction of moving blood from the shift in frequency of reflected sound.

Sources

  1. peer reviewed paper
    Continuous monitoring of deep-tissue haemodynamics with stretchable ultrasonic phased arrays
    Chonghe Wang, Baiyan Qi, Muyang Lin et al.. Nature Biomedical Engineering, 16 Jul 2021. DOI: 10.1038/s41551-021-00763-4. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
  2. peer reviewed paper
    Stretchable ultrasonic arrays for the three-dimensional mapping of the modulus of deep tissue
    Hongjie Hu. Nature Biomedical Engineering, May 2023. DOI: 10.1038/s41551-023-01038-w. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
  3. peer reviewed paper
    A wearable cardiac ultrasound imager
    Hongjie Hu, Hao Huang, Mohan Li et al.. Nature, 25 Jan 2023. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05498-z. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
  4. university press release
    Cardiac imaging on the go
    UC San Diego Today, 25 Jan 2023. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
  5. university press release
    MIT engineers develop stickers that can see inside the body
    Chonghe Wang, Xiaoyu Chen, Liu Wang et al.. MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering, 27 Jul 2022. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
  6. peer reviewed paper
    Transcranial volumetric imaging using a conformal ultrasound patch
    Sai Zhou, Xiaoxiang Gao, Geonho Park et al.. Nature, 22 May 2024. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07381-5. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
  7. university press release
    Wearable ultrasound patch enables continuous non-invasive monitoring of cerebral blood flow
    UC San Diego Today, 22 May 2024. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.

Revision history

3 changes since this profile was created.

Changes on 21 Oct 2026
Published on owner instruction (content loop iteration 17)d8c550e
Sources and claims re-checked against originalsfbb434c
Initial profile drafted from primary sources7e66249