14/02/2026
👣 Our second article for February 2026 is live (Article in Press) — and it’s rooted in a lesson foot care has carried for generations: what we offload, we can heal; what we ignore, we invite back. In BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, our team published: “A narrative review of clinical decision support systems in offloading footwear for diabetic foot ulcers.” (DOI: 10.1186/s12911-026-03349-9)
Here’s the heart of what we found after reviewing 45 studies across guidelines/protocols, knowledge-based systems, and machine learning: The field often agrees on targets (like ≤200 kPa or ≥25–30% plantar-pressure reduction) — but rarely delivers the missing piece clinicians and footwear experts need most: feature-level prescriptions. Current approaches are largely rule-based and sensor-driven, while ML is emerging fast — yet still needs stronger explainability, clinical validation, and workflow fit. So we’ve laid down a practical runway toward what comes next: a future-facing Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) for personalised offloading footwear prescription, guided by a five-part framework: a minimum viable dataset, hybrid decision architecture (rules + optimisation + explainable ML), structured feature-level outputs (clear, actionable design recommendations), continuous validation and evaluation, and integration into clinical and telehealth workflows. This work is proudly a result of the National Industry PhD Program collaboration — bringing together the Australian Federal Government, Charles Sturt University, and Foot Balance Technology as our industry partner. When tradition and technology walk together, the path ahead becomes clearer. If you’re working in diabetic foot care, pedorthics, biomechanics, digital health, or footwear innovation — and want to help shape decision support that truly serves patients and clinicians — I’d love to connect. hashtag hashtag " Foot Balance Technology Sayed Ahmed
