One of the more dangerous implications of diabetes is diabetic foot wounds. The World Heath Organization says that 422 million people suffer from diabetes. Foot wounds like ulceration could occur in up to one third of those with diabetes.
If not properly treated, ulceration can lead to infection and amputation. In fact, someone loses a limb because of diabetes every 10 seconds. One way to manage that condition is wearing prescribed footwear, and Sensoria and Optima are teaming up to make sure that happens.
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The new shoe, which is called the Motus Smart powered by Sensoria, will take the Sensoria Core technology present in Sensoria's smart shoes and combine it with Optima Molter's mechanical offloading system. These two halves have come together to complete the whole that is Motus Smart.
See, one of the important parts of treating diabetic foot ulceration is a patient's "adherence to care." This means that they need to wear a full cast or non-removable shoes. However, these things tend to not be the most comfortable things for patients to wear, so they don't wear them.
So in addition to the Motus Smart texting caregivers if a patient isn't wearing the shoe, it also uses Sensoria's Core technology to gain other metrics, like usage patterns and what kind of pressure they're putting on their feet when they walk.
This all means that not only will doctors be able to track how and when you're wearing your shoe, but if things start to go south they'll know exactly when they need to intervene so that amputation doesn't become an option.
There are no details yet on how much the new shoe could be, what it looks like, or when it could launch. However, the two companies are planning on showing it off next week at CES 2018.