Plantar Pressure Research for Diabetic Foot Ulcers
Ankle Safety Shoes,Black Safety Shoes,Leather Safety Shoes,Ankle Leather Safety Shoes Brightway Shoes Co., Ltd. , https://www.brightwaysafety.com
A new study titled **“Reliability of F-Scan® in-shoe plantar pressure measurements in people with diabetes at risk of developing foot ulcersâ€** has just been published in *The Foot*. This caught my attention, so I reached out to one of the authors, Dr. Ulla Hellstrand Tang, to ask her some questions about her extensive research on preventing diabetic foot ulcers.
---
**Q: You’ve been working in this field for quite some time. What changes have you noticed in research and treatment over the years?**
Ulla: Over the years, I’ve observed three key trends—some of which are conflicting. First, there’s an increasing demand for high-quality prevention and care for diabetic foot issues, but unfortunately, resources remain limited. Second, there’s a growing need for reliable evaluations of foot health, like ensuring that pressure measurements are both valid and accurate. Lastly, making proper pressure measurements in clinical settings still takes too much time, and the cost of the necessary equipment often requires justification. Additionally, professionals need more time to learn and implement these systems effectively for all relevant patients.
---
**Q: With hundreds of millions of people at risk for diabetic foot ulcers worldwide, what drives you to continue working in this area? How did you choose this specialty?**
I started working as a podiatrist 42 years ago with the goal of improving the care pathway for people living with diabetes. Even today, small interventions at the right moment can make a significant difference for individuals. Visualizing pressure maps has proven to be an incredibly powerful tool when discussing orthotics and appropriate footwear with patients. It’s something I’ve seen firsthand in my work at the Department of Prosthetics and Orthotics.
---
**Q: Why did you choose the F-Scan system to collect data for your research?**
Back in the late 1990s, I met representatives from Tekscan at a conference. A few years later, after moving to Gothenburg, I began working at the Department of Prosthetics & Orthotics at Sahlgrenska University Hospital. Here, colleagues like Roy Tranberg and Roland Zügner were already using the F-Scan system in their research. Since then, we’ve conducted over 500 measurements to evaluate plantar pressure in diabetic patients.
---
**Q: Your latest research focuses on the reliability of box placements. Why is sensor resolution important for this kind of diabetic foot analysis?**
Higher sensor resolution clearly impacts how precisely we can identify the placement of boxes. More detailed sensors allow for more accurate assessments, which is crucial for ensuring reliable data.
---
**Q: Do you think pressure mapping could become a standard clinical tool for treating diabetic feet and preventing ulcers? If so, how might it be implemented?**
Absolutely. Pressure mapping has immense potential as a clinical tool. For it to be widely adopted, it needs to be seamlessly integrated into existing medical record systems and made easier to use. Making the results easily documentable would also be a game-changer. The portability of the equipment is another advantage that could help in its implementation.
---
**Q: Any hints about future topics you might explore related to diabetic foot prevention and treatment?**
One exciting area is building an integrated, secure eHealth system capable of capturing various aspects of patient movement, posture, and lifestyle—including self-monitoring data—to create predictive tools and self-management applications using AI. However, the biggest challenge remains improving personalization and enhancing competence across all healthcare professions.
---
**About Ulla Hellstrand Tang**
*Current Research Areas:*
- Ten-year follow-up of gait, lower limb function, plantar pressure, and foot status in diabetic patients using different types of insoles.
- D-Foot, an eHealth tool for risk stratification and foot assessment in diabetic patients (www.dfoot.se).
- Assistive devices—Vision 2025: An innovation project exploring current and future needs for assistive devices, including digital/manual foot screenings.
- Silicone orthoses as treatment for heel fissures: A randomized controlled trial comparing silicone orthoses plus moisture therapy versus moisture therapy alone.
- Sustainable healthcare through diabetic foot care (https://gup.ub.gu.se/publication/285281, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7445797/).
- Facilitating digital innovation toward "Vision 2025" digital healthcare in Sweden.
- Establishing a national quality registry for the diabetic foot.
- MyFootDiabetes, an app designed for self-screening of the foot by people with diabetes (www.myfootdiabetes.se).
- Hoj17/Bike4DIab: A cycling tour promoting better foot health in diabetes (www.hoj17.se). The tour covered 2,500 km over 90 days, featuring 13 meetings, four mini-seminars, and media coverage including newspaper articles and radio interviews.
- Health policy: Engaged in multiple projects to promote good foot health in collaboration with diabetes associations. I give speeches and conduct workshops focusing on "sustainable foot health in diabetes—prevention and care."
Learn more about her work here: [https://www.gu.se/en/about/find-staff/c54cf772-f548-4a17-9fc2-85a1124dddb2](https://www.gu.se/en/about/find-staff/c54cf772-f548-4a17-9fc2-85a1124dddb2).
---
I hope this provides a comprehensive overview of Dr. Ulla Hellstrand Tang's contributions to the field!