A review: evolution of electronic smart textile in the global healthcare industry for the benefit of circular economy and sustainability

The electronic textile industry has been growing in multilateral directions based on humanitarian demands since its invention. At present, smart textiles have taken a satisfactory role in the healthcare monitoring system. The traditional textiles are rediscovered or reengineered by embedding smart materials or electronics on it in such a way that the wearable textile itself is helping to monitor various body parameters e.g. pulse rate, heart rate, temperature etc. and at the same time, it helps to cure the respective disease by providing the therapy too. The whole process becomes very convenient and comfort giving to the patient as well as the medical staff to carry out the diagnostic and its subsequent treatment. In this study, attempts are made to cover the progress of smart textiles over the last decade and to show how it will help mankind in the coming years in all aspects. This review presents a structured and integrative overview of electronic smart textiles for healthcare by systematically correlating material systems, fabrication approaches, sensing mechanisms, and biomedical applications. In addition, sustainability and circular-economy considerations are discussed to provide insight into the development of scalable, durable, and clinically relevant smart-textile technologies.