Healthcare monitoring with earables: A paradigm shift towards digital health

The convergence of consumer electronics and digital health has spurred the rise of earables—advanced in-ear wearable devices that exploit their unique anatomical position to monitor a wide range of physiological, biomechanical, and environmental signals. By enabling continuous, unobtrusive, and personalized health tracking, earables are shifting healthcare from clinic-based to decentralized models. This review outlines the technological foundations of earables, highlighting core sensing modalities such as photoplethysmography, electroencephalography, inertial measurement, and acoustic sensing, which collectively capture parameters including heart rate, oxygen saturation, temperature, and brain activity. We discuss their expanding applications in cardiometabolic monitoring, neuropsychiatry, vestibular assessment, respiratory health, and hearing augmentation. Key challenges—spanning data reliability, user adherence, privacy, clinical validation, and regulatory approval—are addressed alongside advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) that enable real-time data interpretation and personalized feedback. Looking forward, the development of novel biosensors, closed-loop interventions, and strategies for clinical integration positions earables as a pivotal platform for next-generation digital health systems.