Dia-Shoe: A Smart Diabetic Shoe to Monitor and Prevent Diabetic Foot Ulcers

Abstract

Diabetes is a continuous, lifetime disease that affects the body ability to use the energy found in food. Usually, the body splits down the sugars and carbohydrates you eat into a sugar called glucose. Glucose fuels the cells in the body. But the cells require insulin, a hormone, in the bloodstream to get in the glucose and utilize it for energy. Body doesn't make enough insulin, or it can't use the insulin it produces are the two main reasons to occur diabetes. Since the cells can't take in the glucose, it forms up in the blood. High levels of blood glucose can ultimately create nerve injury to the tissues in the extremities. The damage to nerves is a significant reason to occur foot ulcers. If a diabetic sufferer has foot ulcers, he/she need to manage it. Unless with the time they can drop their sensation in the foot which is known as neuropathy situation, which eventually appears in foot ulcers. Because of this, doctors advise using a diabetic shoe to prevent foot ulcers. These shoes decrease the peak plantar force exerted on the foot, but temperature, humidity and abnormal pressure are not managed, and this can be effective on the infection of wounds. As Diabetes is the main reason for the occurrence of these foot ulcers, maintaining blood glucose level is important. Diabetic patients can manage their blood glucose level by controlling daily calorie consumption and activities. For this self-maintenance of diabetes, patients should reduce their blood glucose level periodically and get notified of its divergence. The concept “Día shoe” proposed is an innovative mobile base plug and play device which can be attached to any sort of diabetic shoe to manage the foot ulcers and prevent them from spoiling, while monitoring temperature, humidity, weight and step count of the patient through a mobile application.