Health~Holland has awarded a grant of EUR 442K to Secuped B.V. and the Leiden University Medical Center to develop a solution to prevent diabetic foot ulcers. See the Health-Holland DIAMOND project page for detailed information.

In the DIAMOND project Secuped and LUMC work together to develop a home-monitoring solution for the prevention of diabetic foot ulcers. With the clinical expertise of the LUMC and the medical technology of Secuped, we will develop a better understanding of temperature and physiology in the diabetic foot and use that knowledge to develop and assess a medical device that helps patients detect early signs of ulcer formation.

Diabetic foot ulcers affect 15 to 34% of diabetes patients. It is a serious complication of diabetes that requires intensive wound care and prospects are poor: 50% of ulcers do not heal within a year, 10% do not heal and require amputation. With more than 500 million diabetes patients worldwide the healthcare system’s financial burden is high as well: € 13,500 per ulcer, leading to a financial burden of 0.5% - 1.0% of healthcare expenses at the country level.

Five randomized controlled clinical trials showed that temperature monitoring for “hotspots” on high-risk locations on both feet can reduce diabetic foot ulcers with 30 to 90%. These finding led to recommendations for temperature monitoring in clinical guidelines. These are, however, seldomly implemented because manual daily temperature measurements at 12 locations (6 per foot) are too complex for most patients. In DIAMOND, Secuped and LUMC develop an innovative device with sensors and analytic software for accurate, automatic foot temperature measurements. A first prototype will be tested to provide proof of principle for the ability to accurately detect meaningful temperature differences in patient feet.

We will update this page with the progress of the project.