Real-time computer modeling in prevention of foot pressure ulcer using patient-specific finite element model and model order reduction techniques

Foot ulcers are usually the consequence of a trauma associated to diabetes that could lead to amputation and shorten life expectancy. In this chapter some technologies that could prevent pressure foot ulcers for diabetic persons are presented. There are three essential components: 1) a smart sock to monitor the pressure applied to the foot, 2) a patient-specific finite element model of the foot that includes the soft tissues and bony prominences to compute the required indicators like stress and strain in the foot and 3) a reduced order model that is able to compute the results of the finite element model in real-time and with a small error. To create the reduced order model Proper Orthogonal Decomposition with Interpolation (PODI) was employed. The displacements in the foot based on the reduced order model were computed in 0.1s; although the relative error norm was 2.6% which seems acceptable from a clinical point of view