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A Cost-Effective Photonics-based Device for Early Prediction, Monitoring and Management of Diabetic Foot Ulcers

Project description

Non-invasive method to check for diabetic foot ulcers

Approximately 15 % of patients with diabetes develop an open sore or wound that is commonly located on the bottom of the foot. Of those who develop a foot ulcer, 6 % will be hospitalised. Amputation is the most feared consequence of a foot ulcer. To reverse this trend and to help prevent diabetic foot ulcers, the EU-funded PHOOTONICS project will develop a non-invasive, reliable and cost-effective photonics driven device. At home, this non-invasive device will be used to monitor foot temperature for the prevention and early detection of diabetic foot ulcers. The aim is to replace current approaches like skin lesion biopsy, which are invasive and require a visit to the doctor.

Objective

Early prediction and management of Diabetic Foot Ulcers (DFUs) is an important health factor of Europe. Recent clinical trials have concluded that NIR sensing captures oxy(deoxy)haemoglobin (HbO2, Hb) and peripheral/ tissue oxygen saturations (StO2, SpO2), thermal Infrared-IR detects hyperthermia, among Regions of Interest (ROIs) and Mid-IR contains rich information about the proteomics, lipidomics and metabolomics (e.g. glucose). All these medical indices are important factors for early prediction of DFU.
Current medical approaches are i) invasive (e.g. skin lesion biopsy), ii) requires consumables, and iii) being operated by certified physicians (e.g. ultrasound and/or biopsy).
PHOOTONICS aims at developing a non-invasive, reliable and cost-effective photonics-driven device for DFU monitoring and management which can be applied for wide use. The project supports two versions: (i) the PHOOTONICS In-Home, used for DFU monitoring by patients and (ii) the PHOOTONICS PRO operated by physicians.
Reliability is achieved by optimizing i) passive Hyperspectral (HIS) NIR photo-detector, with an active tuneable diode illuminator for detecting SpO2/StO2, HbO2 and Hb, ii) a thermal-IR sensor of detecting hyperthermia/hypothermia distributions in ROIs and iii) a passive Mid-IR sensing with a Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL) optimized to capture additional tissue attributes such as proteomics (elastin, collagen) and metabolomics (glucose). Cost-effectiveness is achieved by introducing i) targeted photonics technologies for DFU, ii) implementing advanced signal processing/learning algorithms to increase the discrimination accuracy while maintaining hardware cost-benefit, (iii) developing a user-friendly framework operated by non-certified physicians, and even by patients (for the In-Home version), and (iv) minimising operational cost with our non-invasive device. Clinical studies are performed to validate the reliability of the new cost-effective device in real-life settings.

Call for proposal

H2020-ICT-2018-20

See other projects for this call

Sub call

H2020-ICT-2019-2

Coordinator

UAB METIS BALTIC
Net EU contribution
€ 371 937,50
Address
JOGAILOS G 4
01116 Vilnius
Lithuania

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Lietuva Sostinės regionas Vilniaus apskritis
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost
€ 531 339,29

Participants (12)