Recent Advances in Sensor Technology for Biomedical Applications: A Review

Sensor technology has become an integral part of the diagnosis, monitoring, therapeutic and surgical areas of medical science. Various sensors like glucose biosensors for diagnosis of diabetes mellitus or fluorescent sensors for gene expression and protein localization have become a common part of the biomedical field. Due to their widespread applications, various advances and improvements have taken place in medical sensor technology which has led to an increase in the ease and accuracy of diagnosis as well as treatment of diseases. This review article aims at studying various novel and innovative developments in biosensors, fibre optic sensors, sensors used for microelectromechanical systems, flexible sensors and wearable sensors. This article also explores new sensing methodologies and techniques in different medical domains like dentistry, robotic surgery and diagnosis of severe life-threatening diseases like cancer and diabetes. Various sensors and systems used for rapid detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus which is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic have also been discussed in this article. Comparison of novel sensor-based systems for detection of various medical parameters with traditional techniques is included. Further research is necessary to develop low cost, highly accurate and easy-to-use medical devices with the help of these innovative sensor technologies.