Startup Creates Medical Device that Treats and Monitors Diabetic Foot Ulcers
A small startup in Kalamazoo, Michigan, is hoping to raise $5.1 million dollars to get a device on the market that could change the way the medical community treats and manages the debilitating and remarkably common issue of diabetic foot ulcers.
Adlore Inc.‘s Senlore therapeutic boot uses heat and electrical stimulation to improve blood flow to the feet and heal wounds caused by diabetic foot ulcers. The boot is also equipped with sensors in its insole to monitor the patient’s blood flow and progress toward healing. Doctors can remotely monitor progress via a Wi-Fi connection and receive alerts when a patient experiences reduced blood flow that may hinder healing.
“The idea is that we can monitor these wounds every day so we don’t have to wait,” says Daryl Lawson, Adlore’s chief scientific officer. “A physician or a wound clinic can see the blood perfusion in the foot every day and then be notified if it goes significantly down and call in someone right away.”
According to Lawson, an associate professor at Western Michigan University’s Department of Physical Therapy, having remote monitoring may also make patients more likely to comply in using the device as regularly as they’re supposed to so that it can do its job properly.
The company already has a prototype of its device and has conducted a pilot study to ensure that it works as it’s supposed to. It still has to complete development on the final product design and a clinical study, however, so that it can apply for regulatory approval from the U.S. FDA and get the product on the market.
Now the startup is hoping to raise its $5.1 million goal over two rounds of capital campaigns. It will then put the treatment device, which is expected to reduce the several-billion-dollar financial strain of diabetic foot ulcers on the healthcare industry, on the market.
More than eight percent of the U.S. population—about 26.8 million people—are diabetic. Of those people, a quarter will develop a diabetic foot ulcer at some point in their life, and four out of 10 ulcers will recur within a year after being treated. About two-thirds of ulcers will recur within five years.
One in five people with diabetes will get a moderate to severe infection that may require an amputation. Treating an ulcer costs an average of $12,858, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information. This device aims to change that.
The company has already “been getting a lot of irons in the fire” and has attracted interest from investors and potential buyers.
“This is an unmet medical need,” says president and CEO Eli Thomssen. “People recognize this is a problem and it’s in need of a better solution than what we have had.”
With the increasing popularity of telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic, the team believes there will be an increase in the popularity of remotely monitored devices like theirs.
“I think with the cost savings, the telemedicine, and the efficacy of how this will work with healing a wound, it has great, great potential,” Lawson said.
