A new imaging and data transmitting device for telemonitoring of diabetic foot syndrome patients

Proper healing of ulcers and wounds on the feet of diabetes patients is important in order to prevent amputation. If the wound area reduction during the first 4 weeks of the treatment is not 40% or more, reevaluation of the treatment is necessary. The wound area evaluation is not complicated when the patient stays at a hospital, but when he or she goes home the physician does not have a tool allowing monitoring of the wound area.

The aim of the present article is to present a new device able to take a wound picture and send it automatically to the database. This device, called the Patient's Module (PM), is also able to download data from the memories of blood pressure and blood glucose meters and send the data to the database. The PM is able to operate within the TeleDiaFoS system (developed earlier in collaboration with the Department and Clinic of Gastroenterology and Metabolic Diseases, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland) aimed at monitoring of treatment of patients with diabetic foot syndrome. The PM was tested on 10 type 2 diabetes patients during a 3-month period.

The study revealed that the PM can be used as a home telemonitoring device, and the analysis of the data sent from patient's home enables the assessment of wound healing progress, giving the physician the possibility for earlier change of the treatment if the wound area reduction is not satisfactory.