Path Feel - a smart AI insole for personalisation of care in chronic conditions and the elderly

I'm a dedicated and passionate innovator. I successfully launched a company, Walk With Path, in 2014, with a medical device, Path Finder, that is on the market in Europe, Canada and Australia. Our second medical device, Path Feel, is in R&D supported by a team of 13\. I have a range of experience, from finance at JP Morgan, Advertising at AOL and business development within the life sciences for the Danish Embassy in London. The multitude of experience I have gained throughout these roles combined with my degrees in Human Biology (BSc) and Innovation design Engineering (MA/MSc) from King's College London, Royal College of Art and Imperial College London, has equipped me with the skills to develop and launch products. Path Finder was brought to the market in 2017 and is currently reimbursed by European healthcare systems, whilst Path Feel is in pipeline, currently with a clinical study underway by Manchester Metropolitan University.

Walk With Path innovates mobility aids for people with chronic conditions, e.g. Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and diabetes. These populations and the general elderly often have reduced sensation in their feet which leads to instability and falls. This has a huge impact on quality of life (QOL) and the spend of healthcare providers, such as the NHS (£2.3 billion/year on falls alone). Additionally, half of fallers will no longer live independently, contributing further costs.

Our project will develop and commercialise our smart insole, Path Feel. The insole responds to pressure applied and provides vibrational feedback to the user to help them 'feel the floor' and achieve balance in real-time. Embedded sensors gather data on walking that is used for diagnostics, personalised medicine and remote patient monitoring. By the end of the project we will have a beta-product on the market and will be developing the machine learning functions for a version 2 release.

There are currently no devices like this on the market. Patients use canes and frames which are bulky and can carry a social stigma. We aim to deliver an invisible and intuitive user-centred solution that increases people's QOL and independence whilst reducing healthcare costs. Technologically comparable solutions include insoles with sensors, however, none of these offer the therapeutic benefits of haptic feedback. The haptics is the most important feature for many end users, as it provides them better mobility for every step, and it will also assist in ensuring compliance over existing 'passive' solutions.