A long-term complication of diabetes is neuropathy. Patients may experience reduced sense of feeling in the feet so injuries can go undetected and can lead to foot ulcers, infections and amputation. A rise in temperature can be a surrogate marker for inflammation, which may be an early indication of possible ulcer formation. By regularly measuring the temperature of the feet, diabetics become aware their feet condition and can take preventive measures themselves whereby the number of foot ulcers can be reduced by up to 72 pct.

Siren Care has developed a smart sock that can continuously monitors foot temperature and relays the information to an accompanying app on the patient’s mobile device or their doctor’s computer. The Siren smart sock has non-invasive, tiny electronic sensors that measure foot temperature and are unnoticeable to the wearer because they are woven into the sock yarn fibres. The socks communicate to the Siren app via BLE. To make the patient experience as simple and intuitive as possible, the socks do not need to be charged and the socks are machine washable. The app receives and summarizes live temperature data to give the user information about their foot health and advanced warning of potential problems, provides statistics to facilitate changes in behavior, and allows the user to keep a journal. If the patient does not have a smartphone, the Siren Smart Hub base station will also be able to alert them of their foot health. In the future, in addition to tracking temperature technology, Siren smart socks may be able to track the number of steps taken as well as the user’s foot joint angle.

Siren Care is currently testing prototypes of the Siren Smart Socks and expects to run several studies at the Steno Diabetes Center, Wound Healing Centre BBH and OUH in Denmark as well as at the Center for Limb Preservation at UCSF.
 
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