High-tech gadgets you wear give a whole new meaning to the phrase fashion forward. But, interestingly enough, many of these futuristic devices have a targeted connection to health.

Last year, eMarketer, a company that gathers and analyzes digital information, reported that the number of Americans who use wearable devices will continue to grow. By 2018, it predicts that 81.7 million tech-savvy Americans will be wearing accessories or clothing embedded with Internet- connected electronics that can exchange information with a manufacturer or some other device.

Now in various stages of research or production, many of these gadgets will monitor illnesses, such as asthma, or the vital statistics of patients for their doctors. How about a patch embedded with crystals to track heart and skin health? Also in development are smart contact lenses that use encapsulated electronics and sensors to detect blood sugar levels in the tears of people living with diabetes.

Don’t have diabetes and just use contacts for vision problems? Then there’ll be smart lenses to restore your eye’s automatic ability to focus. For ladies, there’s even a smart bra in development that’s embedded with sensors to track breast tissue changes and alert doctors when cancerous cells start to develop.

Possible concerns? Researchers are testing these devices to ensure there are few if any wardrobe or engineering malfunctions.