SUMMARY

It has been demonstrated that both acoustic measurements and bioimpedance spectroscopy can be useful for noninvasively monitoring the health of the human body, for instance in knee joints and lungs. However, to the best of the available knowledge, no attempt has heretofore incorporated both modalities simultaneously, and at that, in a fully untethered and clinically useful form factor. The following dissertation recounts the evolution of a wearable device featuring four sensing modalities (wideband accelerometers for localized acoustic emissions, inertial measurement units for kinematic data, bioimpedance spectroscopy electrodes for underlying tissue composition information, and temperature sensors) through three iterations of a knee-joint application until the most recent adaptation for lung monitoring of patients with COVID-19. This mechanical advancement first proceeded with the base function as the utmost priority, followed by a prioritization of ergonomics, clinical utility, and the desire for even device-naïve users to seamlessly operate the apparatus. Lastly, this dissertation explores the more in-depth progression of the housing for the acoustic sensors specifically. Ultimately, this work demonstrates the progression of the first multimodal wearable health sensing device incorporating structural and physiological health monitoring from a tethered benchtop form factor to two user-and-clinic-friendly variations, one for knee joints and another for lungs.