Research Description
In the US, 10% of adults have a diagnosis of diabetes while 1 in 3 are pre-diabetic. A diabetic foot ulcer (DFU), commonly found in the sole of the foot, is an open sore or wound that occurs in about 34% of people with diabetes over their lifetime. DFUs can eventually lead to an amputation. Once there is an amputation, the mortality rate is 70% within 5 years. Diabetes complications such as DFU takes a disproportionate toll on communities of color and poor people. Currently there are no simple technologies to detect changes in wounds; neither are there technologies that help people with diabetes and their caregivers to communicate with the patient's doctors (when foot ulcers become worse). This project will develop a Diabetic Ulcer Computational Sensing System (DUCSS). DUCSS is a mobile phone application that will allow patients, their family and friends and clinicians to track the patient's DFU. The phone application can be used to capture four aspects of foot health: skin, sensation, circulation, and walking gait. The long-term goal is to use DUCCS data to predict new wounds and give patients and doctors a way to understand how to best care for DFU as to avoid serious complications including infections and lower limb amputation.Research Profile
What area of diabetes research does your project cover? What role will this particular project play in preventing, treating and/or curing diabetes?The goal of this project is to improve our understanding of diabetic foot ulcer management in the short term and decrease diabetic limb amputations in the long term. This project will design a mobile application to monitor foot health status. It is called DUCSS, diabetic ulcer computational sensing system and can be used at home by people with diabetes and their caregivers and in the clinic by healthcare providers. DUCSS will use pictures and videos of the foot to detect ulcers and changes in ulcer severity, accurately monitor ulcer progression between clinical sessions, and to facilitate predictive understanding of what factors lead to recovery, recurrence, infection of ulcers. By facilitating regular foot examinations, DUCSS will break down barriers to care and bring greater knowledge and usable technology to assess ulcer severity and progression. DUCSS bridges three factors that are essential to prevent foot ulcers and amputations: (1) Identify and grade severity of the at-risk foot, (2) Regularly promote patient self-inspection and examination of the at-risk foot, and (3) Educate the patient, family, and care professionals in language and methods appropriate for their needs and abilities (i.e., numeracy, literacy)
If a person with diabetes were to ask you how your project will help them in the future, how would you respond?In the near future, this project will help educate people with diabetes and their caregivers about important factors related to foot health.; specifically, inspection and examination of the at-risk foot. In the long-term, our project will make it easy for people with diabetes to understand their current foot health status. It will also provide doctors with information about what foot ulcers may recur, this will help optimize the medical care the person with diabetes receives.
Why important for you, personally, to become involved in diabetes research? What role will this award play?I believe that technology can improve the human condition. This project will allow me to systematically understand how using a simply mobile phone application can help raise awareness about diabetic foot ulcers, decrease the chances of severe ulcers, and limb amputations.
In what direction do you see the future of diabetes research going?I think an ecological approach to diabetes care is essential for optimal health and wellness. It is not enough to task one group of stakeholders with managing diabetes. Technology can connect the various stakeholders (i.e., patients, their caregivers, clinicians) so that diabetes foot care can be streamlined. It can also improve knowledge about foot care and alleviate the negative outcomes associated with foot ulcers.