pH sensing for healthcare applications requires sensors with mechanically stable materials of high sensitivity and high reproducibility combined with low-cost fabrication technologies. This work proposes a fully printed pH sensor based on a specially formulated conducting polymer deposited on a microelectrode in a flexible substrate. A formulation, which combined polyaniline (PANI) and polypyrrole (PPy) with integrated polyelectrolyte poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) (PSS), was specially prepared to be printed by inkjet printing (IJP). The sensor has good sensitivity in the physiological region (pH 7–7.5) key for the healthcare biosensor. This mixture printed over a commercial gold ink, which has a singular chemical functionalization with phthalocyanine (Pc), increased the sensor sensitivity, showing an excellent reproducibility with a linear super-Nernstian response (81.2 ± 0.5 mV/pH unit) in a wide pH range (pH 3–10). This new ink together with the IJP low-cost technique opens new opportunities for pH sensing in the healthcare field with a single device, which is disposable, highly sensitive, and stable in the whole pH range.

Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) are the most common health care-associated infections due to rapid bacterial colonization+ and biofilm formation in urinary catheters. This behavior has been extensively documented in medical devices. However, there is a few literature works on CAUTI providing a model that allows the exhaustive study of biofilm formation in a urinary environment. The development of an effective model would be helpful to identify the factors that promote the biofilm formation and identify strategies to avoid it. In this work, we have developed a model to test biofilm formation on urinary medical device surfaces by simulating environmental and physical conditions using a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) module with an uropathogenic strain. Moreover, we used the developed model to study the role of human albumin present in artificial urine at high concentrations because of renal failure or heart-diseases in patients. Despite model limitations using artificial urine, these tests show that human albumin can be considered as a promoter of biofilm formation on hydrophobic surfaces, being a possible risk factor to developing a CAUTI.

Strain sensors for wearable electronic devices have received attention due to their potential application in medicine for physiological monitoring or as part of advanced prosthetics. However, low sensitivity values as well as complex fabrication procedures remain significant challenges limiting the applicability. This work presents the fabrication of a strain sensor based on the separation of silver microplates immobilized on a stretchable substrate. The deposition of the microplates is achieved through the exposition of a glucosamine‐functionalized surface to the Tollens’ reagent, being a versatile fabrication methodology able to be implemented in a wide range of substrates. The obtained sensors present a high stretchability (>100%), high conductivity (105 S m–1), good linearity (R2 > 0.98 under 30% strain), good hysteresis properties, and high sensitivity (up to GF = 900 000). Hence, the sensors allow the measurement of very small deformations even in dynamic range, where it presents a stable linear response for the quantification of cyclic deformations of 0.02% strain. Moreover, the applicability of these sensors has been studied in motion‐sensing devices and in a pressure sensor revealing that this technology may expand the potential applications of wearable electronic devices.