On diabetic foot, wound healing, amputation prevention, and the merger of consumer tech with medical devices
A new protocol paper in Sensors describes a chatbot that doses walking like a drug for patients in diabetic foot remission.
A novel inflammation-nutrition biomarker — the neutrophil percentage-to-albumin ratio (NPAR) — shows strong association with diabetic foot ulcer risk in a 1,002-patient study from Xi'an, China, reinforcing that what patients eat and how they inflame are inseparable in the diabetic foot.
A Stanford team demonstrates that a smartphone app measuring vibration perception thresholds can detect large-fiber sensory deficits in patients with diabetes — a potential advance for accessible, patient-operated neuropathy screening.
A scoping review from Kanazawa University maps 60 studies on AI-powered thermography for diabetic foot detection — and reveals a critical gap: nearly half of all studies were tested only in controlled environments, not the real world where feet actually live.
A cost-effectiveness analysis of the DIAFOS trial shows that in-shoe plantar pressure-guided custom footwear saves over €8,000 per ulcer prevented — and adherent patients push the probability of cost-effectiveness to 94%. The economic case for prevention just got stronger.
Honored to deliver the keynote at the inaugural meeting of ADFA in Paris.
A new systematic review finds that roughly one in three adults in remission after a healed diabetic foot ulcer develop a recurrent ulcer within 12 months — a risk comparable to several common cancers. Healing is the beginning of the next chapter, not the end of the story.
A new accelerometer-based study from Michigan and Oxford shows that moderate-to-vigorous physical activity is associated with significantly lower odds of diabetic peripheral neuropathy — with vigorous activity cutting the odds by 60%.
Exploring the Potential of Pemafibrate in Reducing Diabetic Foot Ulceration and Gangrene Note: This post was also part of a Med Page Today interview here Diabetic foot ulceration remains a significant challenge in the management of type 2 diabetes, often leading to increased risks of amputation and mortality. This condition affects up to 34% of... Continue Reading →
This from our friend Luigi Uccioli and coworkers Abstract Background: Adequate compliance with wearing therapeutic footwear (TF) to prevent diabetic foot ulcers is known to be low. The primary aim of this study was to identify population awareness about the ulceration and/or recurrence risk according to footwear choice. The secondary aim was to evaluate the compliance... Continue Reading →
