RTC Electronics Inc — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase I: 200

Description

PROJECT SUMMARY ABSTRACT Diabetic foot ulcers are extremely costly and debilitatingThe cost of care doubles in patients with diabetic foot ulcers compared to patients without ulcersEven if an ulcer healsthere is arisk there will be a recurrence within one yearso the problem is not likely to go away once it has startedThe presence of ulcers and the potential necessity of an amputation both lead to dramatic decreases in both the quality of life and overall health of people with diabetesThe biomechanical and physiological etiology of diabetic ulceration is associated with damaging magnitudes of plantar pressuresshear forces and temperatures within inadequate or ill fitting footwearPrevention strategies are needed that target all of these modifiable factorsHowevertodatecommercially available clinical systems used to measure the plantar surface only capture plantar pressuresand do not quantify shear forces or temperature of the environmentCurrentlyif interventions or advanced orthotics are designed to target skin damaging shear forces and temperaturesthese attributes cannot be measured to validate and test the effectiveness of the interventionTo fill this considerable gap in available technology in the care of diabetic patientsRTC ElectronicsInchas developed a uniquepatented Multi Capacitor Sensor ArrayMCSAtechnologyIssued PatentsUSBand USBthat can sense both axial and shear forcesquantify temperatureand can be fabricated on very thin flexible substrates to fit within the footwearThe overall goal of the technology development proposed by RTC ElectronicsIncis to develop a superior planter surface and foot function analysis system for clinical use to aid in the evaluation of orthotics and interventions that prevent diabetic foot ulcersThe specific goal of this application is to complete the initial development of our in shoe axial and shear forcepressureand temperature sensorcomplete a thorough validation of the sensorand to gather feedback from the clinical end users of the system on current and future design factors PROJECT NARRATIVE Adults with diabetes and neuropathy in their feet often have foot ulcers because of walking barefoot and illfitted footwearCustom foot wearorthoticscan be made to prevent ulcers using force and pressure measure sensors that fit inside a shoeThere are commercially available sensors currentlybut they do not measure all the important variables including temperature and shear forceThis project will focus on developing an advanced in shoe sensor that measures axial forceshear force and temperature to improve our ability to prevent diabetic foot ulcers