Background: Most of the patients suffering from diabetes develop Sensory neuropathy which proceeds with the development of painful neuropathy. This can lead to the formation of ulcers in later stages. Available Quantitative Sensory Testing (QST) devices take more time to perform and are expensive. NEURO TOUCH is such a device which combines four parameters of QST in one unit. It’s a portable, battery-operated and handy device with a real-time display of results along with a data storage and data transfer facility. It can perform tactile sensation threshold, vibration and thermal testing threshold along with skin temperature measurement. This study was undertaken to establish the diagnostic validity, reproducibility and repeatability for early detection of peripheral neuropathy.

Methods: A total of 317 subjects were recruited for QST assessment with NEURO TOUCH, Tactile threshold sensation, vibration perception and thermal threshold testing along with skin temperature. A subset of 30 subjects in each group were considered for repeatability and reproducibility test.

Results: The mean difference for the vibration perception threshold was 0.6 when compared with the gold standard device. Regarding the cold and warm perception threshold, the mean difference was 1.1 and 2 °C, respectively, when compared with the gold standard device. For skin temperature measures, there was a mean difference of 1.2 °C with respect to the standard device.

Conclusions: The NEURO TOUCH device was easy-to-use, compact and provided an efficient multimodality approach which can help in the screening of peripheral neuropathy patients with type 2 diabetes.

Sanjay Seetharama Sharma has over 18 years of experience in providing health care. He completed his Masters in General Surgery and pursued his further studies in Podiatric Surgery in the US. He is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore and the University of California, Berkely. He has completed MDP programs in Health Management / Hospital Administration / Health Economics from IIM Ahmedabad, AIIMS - New Delhi and World Bank respectively. He has his certifications in Foot & Ankle Surgery from AOFAS, and AI in Health Care from PHFI, Bangalore. He has also been awarded the Fellowship in Podiatry by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow (FFPM - RCPS, Glasgow) and the Indian Podiatry Association (FDFM). He is a member of the American Podiatric Medical Association and an Adjunct Faculty at the Manipal University of Higher Education (MAHE). 

He is the Founder of APTA FootSecure, Co-founder of Yostra Labs Pvt. Ltd. Sanjay has also invested in futuristic healthcare companies like PeopleHealth and Mediknit. He has contributed to several patents in Telemedicine, MedTech, Diabetic Foot and Wound Care domains. He is passionate about Ayurveda and dreams of the National System of Medicine, integrating the best of Modern Medicine, Ayurveda, Yoga, Siddha, Unani Homeopathy and other complementary systems. He has also completed his PhD in Ayurveda from the University of Pune.