Problem being Addressed
There are 60m adults suffering from diabetes in Europe (10.3% of men and 9.6% of women aged 25 years and over). One life-threatening complication of diabetes is the diabetic foot ulcer (DFU). Studies revealed a 12% to 25% lifetime risk of developing DFU for diabetics, meaning at least 7.2m Europeans and 50.6m worldwide (422m diabetics in 2014 according to WHO) might suffer from DFU in their lifetime calculated based on lowest risk of 12%. A serious consequence of DFU is lower limb amputation; 85% of the amputations in diabetes sufferers are reported after unsuccessful DFU treatment amounting to 290,000–450,000 amputations/year in Europe, at a cost of €2–2.5bn/year.
Importance for Society
The PODIUM technology is a novel, highly reliable and highly sensitivity solution for the cost-effective diagnosis and monitoring of DFUs at a patient’s home through rapid temperature imaging and reliable analysis of thermographs. PODIUM will result in increased numbers of prevented DFUs through 10 times higher sensitivity than any competitive solution. A timely response from physicians, facilitated by Podium’s telemedicine feature will reduce DFU-related toe, foot and leg amputations, and a reduction in healthcare costs. If PODIUM technology impacted only 5% of DFU sufferers, this would mean substantial Quality of Life (QoL) improvement for at least 400,000 Europeans and at least 2.5m sufferers worldwide (calculated considering the 12% lower risk of developing DFU), substantially reducing associated healthcare costs. The full costs of DFU care in the EU is €10bn per annum.
Overall Objectives
(1) to optimize the current version, using liquid crystalline cholesteric esters instead of infrared camera as detection method and
(2) to validate the higher efficacy, diagnostic value, convenience and cost-effectiveness of PODIUM over conventional thermal-based approaches for DFU.
