Mobile textile company Sensoria Health (an independent strategic partnership between Sensoria Fitness and Genesis Rehab Services) and diabetic mobility garment maker Optima Molliter are collaborating on a smart footwear product capable of measuring diabetes patients’ compliance to prescribed mechanical offloading protocols.
“By combining the best innovations in diabetic footwear technology and Sensoria Core microelectronics, we can contribute to help clinicians and diabetic patients reduce risk of amputations,” Davide Vigano, cofounder and CEO of Sensoria Health, told MobiHealthNews in an email.
The Motus Smart powered by Sensoria Health will be debuted in Las Vegas next week at CES 2018. According to a statement, the device uses pressure sensors and other technologies developed by Sensoria alongside Optima Molliter’s clinically validated offloading system, which reduces weight and pressure on a patient’s injured foot.
“Offloading is essential to diabetic foot ulcer healing, according to podiatry consensus guidelines,” Vigano said in a statement. “Motus Smart will significantly improve the lives of people that suffer from diabetic foot complications. With Sensoria’s technology, caregivers, and clinicians will have access to multitudes of patient data, allowing them to track compliance and intervene before amputation becomes unavoidable.”
To avoid infection, amputation, and potential mortality, clinicians prescribe specialized footwear to diabetes patients with foot complications. Some of these are full contact or come equipped with non-removable compliance systems, both of which are uncomfortable and not always tolerated by patients. As an alternative, the Motus Smart communicates via text messages and a web dashboard to inform caregivers and clinicians of patient non-compliance.
“Recording a patient’s compliance and usage patterns will reduce risk of amputations and provide objective data to the treating physician or hospital center that manages the patient,” Franco Salvatelli, research and development manager at Optima Molliter, said in a statement. “By giving information on the usage patterns, deambulatory activity, and concentration of the patient's orthotic pressures, we will provide additional evidence to a patient’s adherence to the mechanical offloading treatment.”
Both Sensoria Health and Sensoria Fitness are no strangers to footwear-focused partnerships. At last year’s CES, the latter first showed off smart shoes (a collaboration with Vivobarefoot) capable to tracking speed, pace, and location via GPS. Sensoria provided a clearer look at these garments and others in October, when it announced that the footwear and its Sensoria Core electronics module would be at the heart of the newly formed Sensoria Health. Sensoria Fitness launched its first connected footwear, a smart sock, in 2015, and has in 2016 released the Sensoria Walk app for patients rehabilitating after a stroke or surgery.
