The introduction of healthcare technology in footwear industry has become the search for “El Dorado” within the realm of feet. There is a consensus on the definition of the potential benefits that technology in general can introduce in the different areas of footwear industry; design, manufacturing, packaging, logistics, sales, healthy products or monitoring biometrical parameters. Terms like CAD (Computer Aided Design), CAM (computer aided manufacturing), CIM (Computer integrated manufacturing) or EPOS (electronic point of sales) are usually known by footwear sector. Nowadays IoT (Internet of Things) devices are popularly used to monitor humans remotely in the healthcare sector. However, and particularly speaking about ICT-Health technologies (ICT means information and communication technology), the real application of these technologies is still in its infancy, and there are hardly any real examples of intelligent shoes that have real benefits for users. The delicate nature of feet, the wide variety of procedures and different approaches, and the fact that wearable technologies has yet to solve energy aspects has meant that wearable technology has not yet become popular within the footwear scenario.

What are the main benefits of ICT-Health on footwear?

• Increasing quality in the patient assistance.
  • ICT can help improve patient safety through the direct access to the medical case story, checking the treatments online, keeping track of the patients’ progress and anticipating possible medical errors.
• Cutting down the medical spending.
  • Direct access to data
• Reducing administrative cost.
• Possibility to carry on brand new health models.
  • they contribute to a personalized following of chronic diseases; they improve the access to health care in rural populations; and they contribute to the optimizing data measuring and supervision.

ICT-Health enabled devices implanted on shoes are utilized to generate datasets for different diseases, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments. There is a great requirement for a large dataset for research in healthcare. ICT-Health devices are designed to collect data that can be produced by human beings.

What are the keypoints when speaking about ICT-Health?

Several examples of smart-shoes can be found, and they are increasing exponentially. One of these examples is the E-Vone shoes; these shoes are capable of detecting “abnormal” movements, such as a fall or slip, and trigger a pre-programmed alarm.

The possibilities that open up for the footwear sector thanks to advances in technology are immense.