Diabetic foot prevention, assessment, and management using innovative smart wearable technology: a systematic review.
Doua Kosaji, Mohammad I Awad, Rateb Katmah and 5 others
PMID 40682082WHAT IT FOUND
Smart foot wearables can track pressure, temperature, moisture, and wound pH, and some alert patients or clinicians early.
They may help prevention and monitoring, but the review reports no formal quality assessment, and these devices are not a replacement for routine diabetic foot checks.
Key findings
01A 1.2 °C skin temperature rise within 24 to 96 hours typically precedes ulcer development, and one sock system predicted ulceration 15 days before observable injury.
02One included study reported a 71% reduction in ulcers with an offloading insole system that alerted patients to increased pressure.
03The review lists accuracy, comfort, data interpretation, healthcare integration, cost, size, weight, privacy, and customization as barriers.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The review says a formal quality assessment of all 98 included articles was not feasible. The review says accuracy remains a primary concern, especially for detecting deeper changes such as microcirculation, ischemia, pH balance, and wound healing attributes. Comfort, bulky wearables, data interpretation, healthcare system integration, cost, size, weight, privacy, and customization are listed as barriers. The search date is inconsistent: the methods say 2012 to May 2023, while the inclusion criteria say 2012 to July 2024. The paper is a systematic review, not a meta-analysis, and it does not report a single primary clinical outcome.
Declared interests
The paper names Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research as funder. It does not state author conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that smart wearables are proven to prevent diabetic foot ulcers. The review includes many device prototypes and reports no formal quality assessment, so the 71% ulcer reduction from one included study cannot be taken as established treatment evidence.