Our founder Caroline van Heijkamp was invited by one of our key partners Curvebeam, to talk about T-Soles in their podcast Curvebeam Connect. A podcast where they give doctors, patients, and anyone who is interested in healthcare technology a look into how their solutions are changing medicine. Read and listen here:
CURVEBEAM CONNECT: T-SOLES IS SET TO DISRUPT THE INSOLE INDUSTRY
The Netherlands may be famous for their wooden shoes, but with an estimated four million people in the Netherlands suffering from foot problems, there is a growing need for therapeutic insoles. Caroline van Heijkamp and George Hersbach, the initiators of T-Soles Insole Systems, created a solution for this problem. The T-Soles system is a personalized corrective insole designed through a Weight Bearing CT scan-and-print process.
Their goal is to provide a better insole product that is also less expensive, so the adoption and use rate will be higher. “You can compare it to the number of people who wear glasses or contact lenses,” van Heijkamp said. “Years ago, when glasses were costly, only the people who really needed hem were willing to spend the money, but nowadays you can find glasses for a few Euros, and you see many more people wearing them. And you will see the same thing happen with insoles.”
The 3D CT scan process of the T-Soles system allows for an accurate picture of the foot for precise calculations to ensure the resulting insole will do its job correctly. Current systems, van Heijkamp pointed out, don’t take the actual shoe into account. In the T-Soles system, the the patient wears his or her shoe during the CT scan, guaranteeing a custom fit. The software allowing the creation of therapeutic insoles for podiatrists should be available later this year.
