Study Status: Recruiting
Recruit Status: Recruiting
Study Type: Interventional
Official Title:
Brief Summary: In 2011, the premiers of all Canadian provinces and territories selected diabetes foot care as one of three significant targets for pan-provincial action. The Diabetes Foot Care Clinical Pathway Project (DFCCPP) aims to optimize methods of early detection and treatment of foot ulcers in an effort to reduce lower limb amputation (LLA) by 50%. The DFCCPP key deliverables apply consistency in assessment, care, treatment and process standards, early intervention and complex wound care management, while optimizing health outcomes. To achieve these deliverables, High Risk Foot Teams (HRFTs) will be implemented across the province starting with three pilot sites (Slave Lake, Brooks, and outpatient clinics at the Peter Lougheed Hospital). The pilot site facilities were selected on the basis of their employing staff with expertise and knowledge in diabetic foot care. The HRFT will assess and treat patients with moderate and high-risk findings, and this care pathway will then be rolled out to all clinicians who perform diabetic foot assessments (Primary Care, Home Care, Diabetes Centers, First Nations Reserves, etc.). In conjunction with the DFCCPP, we will evaluate the efficacy of a technological device developed by Alberta-based small-medium enterprise (SME) to improve diabetic foot outcomes by preventing future wounds in high-risk patients who have recently been treated for active foot ulcers. This technology is the SurroSense Rx® smart insole system (Orpyx Medical Technologies Inc., Calgary AB), a device that provides dynamic offloading guidance to patients, in addition to enabling ongoing adherence tracking by the HRFT. It is hypothesized that early wound detection and treatment will ultimately lead to improvements in wound prevalence, chronic wound care, and reduce the need for surgical intervention, including LLA.