Using sensors to reduce diabetic foot ulcers
- May 09, 2018
Patients with diabetes have impaired ability to feel pain from their feet, putting too much pressure on foot ulcers which may worsen over time and lead to re-ulceration or worse, amputation. Singapore has one of the highest rates of foot and toe amputations in the world – 180 for every 100,000 adult diabetes patients in 2015.
Flexosense, a company co-founded by BIGHEART Acting Director Prof. Lim Chwee Teck, is developing a shoe insole with flexible microfluidic sensors that monitor pressure on different parts of the foot, and send the data to a mobile phone app. This allows patients to see where they are putting most pressure on their feet and take a break to rest the affected areas.
A prototype of this product was showcased at this year’s Nikkei X NUS Digitalization Forum 2018, co-organised by Japan-based Nikkei and NUS Enterprise. Flexosense aims to have the product ready to market in about five years.
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