A Step Ahead: How Avriel International’s Smart Shoe Could Transform Diabetic Foot Care

For Bruce Griffith, founder of Avriel International, the goal behind the company’s “Smart Shoe” technology is simple but powerful: detect the warning signs of diabetic foot complications before they become visible wounds.

For millions of people living with diabetes, foot ulcers are a serious and often life-altering complication. Once a wound develops, treatment can be costly and prolonged — and in severe cases, can lead to amputation. Griffith believes the key to changing those outcomes is early detection.

“The biggest problem with diabetic foot complications is neuropathy,” he said. “Patients often can’t feel what’s happening in their feet. By the time a wound becomes visible, the infection has already started.”

Avriel International’s Smart Shoe aims to change that.

Diabetic foot ulcers are a major health challenge worldwide. According to a study published in the National Library of Medicine, up to 30% of people with Type 1 or 2 diabetes will experience at least one foot ulcer during their lifetime, and treatment can cost tens of thousands of dollars per patient.

The Project: Protecting a Novel Medical Monitoring System for Diabetic Foot Care

The Smart Shoe is an intelligent monitoring system built into wireless insoles that sit inside a user’s footwear. The device contains a family of embedded sensors designed to continuously track environmental and biological indicators associated with foot health.

These include sensors that monitor:

• Heat

• Moisture

• Pressure

• Volatile gases associated with bacterial infection

The most novel component — and the focus of Avriel International’s patent work — is a volatile gas sensor capable of detecting chemical changes caused by bacterial activity. As infections begin to develop, pH levels and gases around the affected tissue can change weeks before a wound becomes visible.

By identifying these early indicators, the Smart Shoe can alert users through a connected smartphone application, allowing intervention before the condition worsens.

“The idea is to detect the problem two to four weeks before it becomes visible,” Griffith said. “If you can get out in front of the infection, you can start treatment early and potentially prevent the wound altogether.”

From Prototype to Protection: The Role of ElevateIP

The Smart Shoe concept has been under development for more than a decade, with research and prototyping support from institutions including the University of Manitoba, the University of Winnipeg, and Red River Polytech.

Today, the technology exists as a fully functioning prototype — complete with wireless insoles, data collection capabilities, and a mobile app that allows users to track foot health trends and receive alerts when measurements fall outside safe thresholds.

As the technology matured, protecting the underlying intellectual property became essential.

Through North Forge’s ElevateIP program, Avriel International completed several critical steps to safeguard the innovation, including:

• Freedom-to-operate (FTO) analysis and patentability reassessment to confirm the originality of the technology

• Patent filing support to formally protect the Smart Shoe’s unique sensor system

• Canadian and U.S. non-provisional patent applications covering the device’s design and functionality

The work also helped broaden the scope of protection for the invention.

“When we started the process, the patent was quite narrow,” Griffith explains. “But as we learned more about IP strategy, we were able to expand it to cover several additional features of the device.”

Why This Innovation Matters

Diabetic foot ulcers are a major health challenge worldwide. According to a study published in the National Library of Medicine, up to 30% of people with Type 1 or 2 diabetes will experience at least one foot ulcer during their lifetime, and treatment can cost tens of thousands of dollars per patient.

The human cost is even higher.

Individuals who undergo limb amputation due to infection face dramatically reduced quality of life and significantly higher mortality rates.

Griffith believes the Smart Shoe could shift the focus of care from treatment to prevention.

“If you can maintain someone’s quality of life — if they can keep walking, stay active, and avoid losing a limb — that’s the biggest outcome,” he says.

Expanding Impact Through Remote Monitoring

Beyond individual use, the Smart Shoe system is designed to support remote healthcare monitoring.

The device’s data can be transmitted through a smartphone to cloud-based systems and shared with healthcare providers. In cases where sensor readings indicate potential infection, alerts could be sent both to the patient and to healthcare teams for immediate follow-up.

This capability could be especially valuable in northern and remote communities, where access to healthcare professionals may be limited.

In some communities, patients may only see a diabetic nurse once or twice a year. Continuous monitoring technology could help bridge that gap by alerting care providers to emerging issues in real time.

“If something is happening, the system can notify the patient and the healthcare team immediately,” Griffith said. “That allows intervention long before a situation becomes critical.”

Looking Ahead

With patent protection now in place and a working prototype completed, Avriel International’s next step is validation.

The company is preparing clinical studies in partnership with healthcare researchers and Indigenous communities to evaluate the Smart Shoe’s effectiveness in real-world conditions.

If successful, Griffith believes the technology could become a transformative tool in preventative diabetic care.

“We see this as a potential game-changer in foot care prevention,” he says. “There’s currently no system that tracks the entire lifecycle of a wound — from the earliest signs of infection through healing. That’s what we’re aiming to do.”

Protecting Innovation That Protects Lives

For Avriel International, ElevateIP has played a critical role in turning a promising prototype into a protected medical technology.

By strengthening the company’s intellectual property position, the program has helped ensure that this potentially life-saving innovation can move forward with the safeguards needed to scale globally.

“I’m very grateful for the ElevateIP program and the way North Forge has run it,” Griffith said. “It’s been incredibly beneficial and helped push our project forward.”