What is the problem/issue being addressed?
Type II diabetes, or simply diabetes, is a major public health problem that is increasing dramatically. Diabetes related diseases mainly affect the foot, the eyes, the heart, the kidney, the nervous system, and blood vessels. The STANDUP project will focus on diabetic foot (DF). DF diseases include neuropathy, peripheral arterial diseases, and infection. In the presence of a triggering factor, it may lead to ulceration and subsequent lower limb amputation. Skin temperature is not currently well exploited even though it is an important factor in the evaluation of foot health and can strongly reduce the incidence of foot ulcer. There is a significant potential for the development of system to reliably detect abnormal thermal variations of the plantar foot in clinical routine or even at home. Insoles have been used extensively in the past to decrease the risk of foot ulceration, but the foot thermoregulation has not been established.
Why is it important for society?
Considering the number of people living with diabetes in Europe (EU-27) and the annual population based ulceration rate this implies that nowadays 600,000 diabetic foot ulcers occur each year of which 90,000 will require an amputation. It is estimated that the average treatment cost for a single diabetic foot ulcer is about 10.000 EUR. The direct annual cost of ulceration is estimated to be of 15 Billion EUR. In the future, associated costs in terms of quality of life and health as well as sociable care expenditures are expected to rise leading to significant associated morbidity and mortality in DF if no measures are taken.
What are the overall objectives?
The overall objectives of STANDUP are to develop, test, improve and disseminate to the market in a very near future a thermal based smartphone system for DF. This friendly system will detect abnormal thermal variations in DF plantar surface, will give thermal information during a DF ulcer treatment, and will help in developing new insole that take thermal information into consideration. This system is composed of a smartphone, of a dedicated thermal camera and of two smartphone applications A1 and A2. These 2 smartphone applications will be developed during STANDUP.
The 5 operational objectives of STANDUP are as follow.
1. The first smartphone application (A1: hyperthermia detection and analysis of thermal variations through time) will permit to detect hyperthermia of the plantar foot surface.
2. The second smartphone application (A2: time follow up of temperature, color, and 3D shape of DF ulcer) will measure temperature, color, and 3D shape of an ulcer along time.
3. In the STANDUP project, we propose to take into account thermal factors for a design of new foot insoles.
4. Three clinical studies will be conducted.
5. Finally, all results produced during STANDUP will be associated to converge in an advanced smartphone based prototype and in new insoles that can rapidly address novel market demands in early DF diagnosis, and in DF ulcer prevention and care.
