Award for ‘laser-guided’ shoes that help Parkinson’s sufferers

Healthcare technology created in London with potential to help people worldwide has been showcased at awards celebrating technology and design.

They include innovations for Parkinson’s disease sufferers and people who experience paranoid thoughts.

The AXA PPP Health Tech & You Awards were held last night at Bafta in Piccadilly in collaboration with the Design Museum.

The Independent Living Award was won by Lise Pape’s Walk With Path “laser-guided” shoes for those with Parkinson’s. They emit green light which guides the wearer, reducing the risk of falling. A sensor in each heel monitors walking pattern and pace.

Ms Pape, an Imperial College London and Royal College of Art graduate, was inspired to develop them by her father’s illness. Joon Faii Ong, a medical student at Imperial, was shortlisted for the GyroGear, a glove that uses sensors to counteract tremors and stabilise a Parkinson’s sufferer’s hand. The inventions were developed further in an “accelerator” course run by the Design Council and MedCity. Winner of the One To Watch section was the SlowMo app, a “friend in your pocket” that can help some sufferers of mental illness who often experience paranoid thoughts about others wanting to harm them.

It helps people use tips learned in therapy sessions to manage upsetting thought patterns such as “he is planning to hurt me”. SloMo was created by Amy Hardy from King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Anna Wojdecka of the Royal College of Art, and mental health service users.