soleSCAN - mobile phone based monitoring of foot sole for callus formation and the shoe insole for pressure “hot spots”

Diabetic foot ulcers have an enormous human cost when more than 250 million people are diagnosed with diabetes worldwide. In the etiology of foot ulcers in diabetic patients, it is generally agreed that non-mechanical factors such as peripheral neuropathy, dry skin, and/or vascular problems are often major contributing causes for skin ulceration. That, combined with the absence of “early warning” pain with neuropathy, gradual deformity or loss of foot flexibility, and changes to the skin (dryness, thickness, and stiffness) can have serious consequences. Therefore monitoring the cutaneous tissue of foot for callus formation in a low-resource setting, and early prevention by identifying and relieving the “hot spot“ pressure points in shoe insole is a necessity. Fortunately India has a good penetration of mobile phones which can be an effective monitoring device and therefore we present a mobile phone based application for monitoring sole of the foot for calluses and detecting pressure “hot spots” in the shoe insole so that they can be relieved in a timely manner.