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

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.