Though no one likes to feel pain, it actually performs an important function for our health – alerting us to a problem that needs to be treated. This is why the loss of sensation diabetics often experience, usually in their feet, is so detrimental. But an Israeli-developed technology is offering new hope.
Diabetic neuropathy is the number one cause of amputation in the world – and it affects as many as 70% of the 30 million-plus people in the US who suffer from diabetes, costing the economy as much as $10 billion annually. Diabetics with the condition suffer a loss of sensitivity in nerve endings in their legs and feet – meaning that, since they have less feeling in their feet they may end up damaging them extensively before they realized that they have a problem.
But a new invention developed jointly at Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital – the SenseGo “smart sock” – could help temper the effects of diabetic neuropathy by offering a “sensor assist” to the feet.
With the SenseGo, “patients and their families get the tools they need to prevent the development of foot ulcers,” according to Prof. Yaakov Nahmias, head of the BioDesign: Medical Innovation program, where the socks were developed. “Thus we can dramatically reduce health care costs related to diabetes.”