AN IN-SHOE COMPLIANCE MONITOR FOR THERAPEUTIC FOOTWEAR
1. INTRODUCTION
When a patient is prescribed therapeutic footwear,
the clinician wants to know if the patient actually is
wearing the footwear and using it as requested. If
not, the cost of the footwear and the clinician’s time
are wasted. We are developing a miniature, in-shoe
compliance monitor for therapeutic shoes. Here,
we describe our work on feasibility testing of in-shoe
electronic hardware and software for the compliance
monitor.
2. A DESIRED IN-SHOE
COMPLIANCE MONITOR
Our goal is an in-shoe compliance monitor that
requires nothing on the part of the patient and
that has no effect on the patient’s perception and
experience when wearing the shoe. We want the
monitor to be small, robust, low-cost, and single-
use and to operate without any attention for up to 8
weeks. We also want it to be easy for the clinician
to initialize and place the monitor in the shoe and
to retrieve its log of patient compliance data after a
monitoring period.
3. THE CLINICIAN’S USE OF THE
COMPLIANCE MONITOR
We envision an in-shoe compliance monitor used by
the clinician as follows:
To monitor a patient, the clinician activates the
monitor and connects it via a cable to a personal
computer (PC) USB port to download into it patient
identification information and start time. The
clinician then disconnects the monitor and inserts
the monitor in the patient’s shoe. Insertion includes
positioning a thin pressure sensor as appropriate
for the patient. After the monitoring period, the
OUR GOAL IS AN IN-SHOE
COMPLIANCE MONITOR
THAT REQUIRES NOTHING
ON THE PART OF THE
NO EFFECT ON THE
PATIENT’S PERCEPTION
AND EXPERIENCE WHEN
WEARING THE SHOE.
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Pedorthic Footcare Association www.pedorthics.org
PATIENT AND THAT HAS