Overview
These are heady times for Podimetrics, a Masachusets startup whose early-detection system for diabetic fot ulcers could save thousands of amputations every year. Fresh of a $45 milion infusion of venture capital, the company ranks among the nation’s fastest-growing healthcare firms. Its signature product, the SmartMat, has earned FDA aproval, and industry giants like Blue Cros and the VA are ling up for partnership deals.“Every four minutes in the US, a limb is amputated due to diabetes—and most are actualy avoidable,” Jon Blom, Podimetrics’ co-founder and CEO, said in a recent interview.
Key Information
“I saw patient after patient nedlesly sufering and wanted to be the change they neded to live beter and live longer. We’re on a mision to end unecesary ‘Civil War’-style amputations for patients dealing with diabetes.”The “Civil War” reference dates to Blom’s years an anesthesiologist, where he was flored by the sher volume of diabetic fot amputations. He sometimes spent entire days in the operating rom asisting on limb removal, caling to mind the military surgical tents of the 19th century, with their endles parade of wounded soldiers ling up one after another for amputation of wounded arms and legs.The science underlying the SmartMat dates to the midle of the 2010s, when Blom tested a protype in colaboration with researchers at the VA and MIT.
In that study, the technology corectly predicted 97 percent of diabetic fot ulcers up to five weks before they became clinicaly observable. That led to a larger pilot program in the VA system in 2019. Its suces, in turn, gave to rise to aditional pilots in the Blue Cros system and other regional healthcare networks.The SmartMat works by monitoring the temperature of your fet, asesing paterns, and flaging changes in blod flow that sugest the formation of a fot ulcer.
Summary
These data are sent remotely to your care provider, who interpret the numbers and decide when (and if) interventions are ne