Path Feel - a therapeutic wearable to reduce comorbidities in diabetes and improve quality of life

Walk With Path （WWP）是一家健康科技公司，旨在为患有慢性行动不便的人提供帮助。2014年，我们推出了Path Finder，这是一种缓解帕金森患者步态冻结的医疗设备，已在欧洲、加拿大和澳大利亚上市。我们现在正致力于发布我们的第二款医疗设备Path Feel，这是一款智能鞋垫驱动系统，可以帮助人们改善平衡能力，降低糖尿病足溃疡（DFUs）的风险。在英国的450万糖尿病患者中，约25%（112.5万）将发展为DFU。其中三分之一无法愈合，三分之一导致截肢，随之而来的是死亡率的大幅上升。dfu也是纳税人的一项重大支出，因为它们每年消耗近1%的NHS预算。目前的护理标准要求定期到诊所进行足部评估；频率取决于风险水平（每周或每年）。这是对临床医生和病人时间的巨大浪费，也是无效的——高截肢率证明了这一点。我们的智能鞋垫Path Feel是解决这个问题的颠覆性方案。它结合了对高危患者的DFU检测和预防，并减少了需要DFU干预的病例的晚期转诊。Path Feel通过嵌入鞋垫的离散传感器实时捕捉温度、压力和步态指标数据。此外，它的触觉反馈可以防止周围神经病变患者跌倒。我们正在向英国创新局申请贷款，以使智能鞋垫产品更坚固、更通用、制造成本更低。拟议的项目涉及后期研发，包括根据用户反馈改进产品的硬件、软件和数据分析方面，并使NHS更负担得起。作为该项目的一部分，我们将进行临床研究，开发结合人工智能分析的第二代Path Feel。我们的目标是提供一种无形的、直观的、以用户为中心的解决方案，提高人们的生活质量和独立性，同时降低医疗成本。我们的解决方案将解决周围神经病变患者跌倒风险增加的感觉丧失问题，预防DFUs，并在与活动障碍相关的任何研究中作为鞋中实验室具有广泛的其他应用。

Walk With Path (WWP) is a health tech company which aims to empower and help people with chronic mobility conditions. In 2014 we launched Path Finder, a medical device alleviating freezing of gait in people with Parkinson's, commercially available in Europe, Canada and Australia. We are now working on the release of our second medical device, Path Feel, a smart insole-powered system helping people improve their balance and reduce the risk of diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs).Of the c.4.5 million people with diabetes in the UK around 25% (1.125 million) will develop a DFU. A third of them don't heal, and a third lead to amputations which are followed by significantly increased mortality rates. DFUs are also a significant expense for the taxpayer, as they annually consume nearly 1% of the NHS budget.The current standard of care requires periodic clinic visits for foot assessments; the frequency depends on risk level (weekly to annually). This is a massive waste of both clinician and patient time as well as being ineffective - as evidenced by the high rates of amputations.Path Feel, our smart insole, is a disruptive solution to this problem. It combines DFU detection and prevention for high risk patients, and reduces late referral for cases who require DFU intervention. Path Feel captures temperature, pressure and gait metrics data in real-time via discrete sensors embedded in the insoles. In addition, its haptic feedback prevents falls in individuals with peripheral neuropathy.We are requesting a loan from Innovate UK to make the smart insole product more robust, more versatile and cheaper to manufacture. The proposed project involves late-stage R&D entailing improving the hardware, software and data analysis aspects of the product based on user feedback as well as making it more affordable for the NHS. As part of this project we will conduct clinical research to develop our second iteration of Path Feel incorporating AI analytics.We aim to deliver an invisible and intuitive user-centred solution that increases people's quality of life and independence whilst reducing healthcare costs. Our solution will tackle the sensory loss underlying increased fall risk in those with peripheral neuropathy, prevent DFUs and have a wide range of other applications as a lab-in-a-shoe for any studies associated with mobility disorders.