Improving Rehabilitation and Reducing Re-Occurrence of Diabetic Foot Ulcers by Shifting Plantar Pressure with Exo- Tendon & Exo-Skeletal Footwear Systems

Results Group, LLC, in collaboration with the Southern Arizona Limb Salvage Alliance (SALSA) and other stakeholders will, in this 6-month program, establish proof of principle that non-motorized footwear can translate biomechanical leverage to confer similar load-reducing benefits as found in Total Contact Casts improving return to employment and healthy function. Aligned with patient-centered care and a Triple Aim (better care for individuals, populations, and lower utilization costs), our goals are to bring novel footwear towards commercialization which reduce plantar loading and accelerate and improve rehabilitation after Diabetic Foot Ulcer and minimize its reoccurrence towards helping people resume and maintain full employment and function. We propose the following objectives: 1) Iterative prototyping of non-motorized load-reducing footwear, integrating digital instrumentation to enable objective clinical measurement 2) Limited performance testing in both healthy volunteers and target diabetic patient population 3) Capturing data for future digital modeling. Anticipated outcomes of this work enable Researchers, Orthotics & Prosthetics Companies, and Footwear Companies to see new data that illuminates the opportunities for biomechanical leverage in footwear construction to off-load plantar pressure without motor assist. The expected products are: 1) two prototype pair of pressure-reducing footwear, 2) instrumentation to characterize plantar pressure as well as lateral & frontal pressure peripheral to the ankle, 3) a plan for Phase II effort.