Walk With Path wins Roche Italy's 'Roche HealthBuilders' challenge
Walk With Path has won the prestigious Roche HealthBuilders challenge set out by Roche Italy, with their smart insole solution, Path Feel.
Walk With Path applied to the Diabetes Prevention and Complications Challenge, with a solution to reduce the risk of diabetes foot ulcers and provide early ulcer detection should they occur, so as to minimise further consequences, such as amputation.
A person with diabetes dies due to complications in Italy every 20 minutes, with figures rising due to disrupted care as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns. Research by Caruso and team specifically showed that there was a 42% increase in the number of diabetes related amputations during lockdown, due to patients not accessing the required in-person care.
With Path Feel, foot health for people with diabetes can be monitored remotely, without the need for as many appointments, whilst keeping people and their feet safe. Specifically, the insoles track pressure and temperature, which are established biomarkers for ulcers, and based on seeing changes, can provide alerts to the user and their clinician. The user receives alerts on a connected smartphone, whilst the clinician will receive alerts on a web based dashboard.
Roche Diabetes Care Italy selected Walk With Path as the winner of the Roche HealthBuilders challenge, an innovation programme that invites companies and startups to come up with effective ideas to improve the management of health systems and care experiences.
Jonathan Rosetti from Roche Diabetes Care Italy says:
Roche Diabetes Care Italy has always been committed to supporting patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals. We had the pleasure to receive many projects, all of great value. Among those that responded best to the various evaluation parameters considered by the panel of evaluators (such as innovation, together with prevention and sustainability), Path Feel stood out and we are happy to select this solution as the winner of the challenge.
Walk With Path and Roche Diabetes Care Italy are currently assessing a pilot together in the Italian market, and working to understand reimbursement routes through the collection of evidence for Path Feel in reducing ulcers for people with diabetes in Italy.
For more information about the challenge and Roche HealthBuilders see https://www.healthbuilders.roche.it/en/challenge/diabetes-pevention-complications/.