“Let me watch you walk.” When patients seek treatment for foot pain, posture, or mobility-related problems, healthcare professionals typically start by analyzing the patient’s gait. As with blood pressure measurement, however, in-office testing may not reflect real-world results. We’ve written about Lechal’s smart insoles with navigation and location reporting aids. Moticon’s insoles measure forces with 13 pressure sensors to detect issues while people walk, run, or exercise. The Motus Smart boot detects diabetic patient compliance in treating foot ulcers.

Digitsole recently introduced the PODOSmart insole that measures multiple parameters related to the wearer’s gait. Digitsole’s earlier products include a shoe that keeps cold feet warm and another that automatically tightens. PODOSmart consists of a kit with six pairs of smart insoles that measure 13 biomechanical parameters of a person’s gait. The insole transmits the data via Bluetooth to a mobile device with AI-derived algorithms that analyze the gait data. The system generates a report on the patient’s gait within 30 seconds.

According to Digitsole, the company developed PODOSmart for chiropodists, physiotherapists, orthoptists, sports doctors, and coaches who can use the precise gait analysis to help people with problems or, in the case of coaches and sports trainers, to improve performance. PODOSmart is one of the fast-growing numbers of health and medical applications that merge wearable data sensors with artificial intelligence-driven data analysis.