PREVENTING THE PROGRESSION OF DIABETIC FOOT ULCERS: ADDRESSING PATIENT COMPLIANCE WITH LOW-COST, BEHAVIOR-MODIFYING WEARABLES

Over 34.2M Americans have diabetes and $237B is spent on direct costs of diabetes each year. Of this, $15B is spent on foot ulcer treatment alone as more than half of people with diabetes develop some type of neuropathy, the primary modifiable risk factor of ulcers in this population. Currently, patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) rely on early hotspot identification, padded soles, offloading boots, and diabetic shoes, with compliance being the major issue. Through expert interviews, there is a need for a better method to slow and prevent the progression of hot spots and other complications in patients with DPN. Our team is proposing DiaSense, a wearable device that replaces the lost sensation of pain with a safe and actionable stimulus that modifies gait to offload hotspots. The discrete design was guided by experiences from patients, podiatrists, and vascular surgeons to improve patient compliance, satisfaction, and recovery. Early user-feedback demonstrated useful validation that our device modifies walking behavior in healthy participants, and helps justify a larger study with patients who have diabetic peripheral neuropathy.