Diabetic foot ulcers are a major complication of diabetes mellitus and affect 15 percent of diabetics. Thanks to Tel Aviv University scientists these non-healing chronic diabetic ulcers can now be assessed ahead of time.

Dr. Assaf Shachmon and Hagai Ligomsky of Tel Aviv University were recently awarded the top prize in a contest sponsored by the Chief Scientist’s Office for their optical scanner that identifies diabetics at risk of developing foot ulcers. Statistics show that foot ulcers precede 84% of all diabetes-related lower-leg amputations.

Shachmon and Ligomsky won NIS 100,000 in a contest that identified Israel’s ‘entrepreneurs of the future’.

The other two teams to win official recognition for their promising startups included a device called HybRead that helps kids with ADD in reading (NIS 75,000) and a device for monitoring heart rate and ventricular fibrillation diagnosis (NIS 50,000).

“An important part of our job is to make innovation a real cultural value,” Avi Hasson, chief scientist at Israel’s Economy Ministry, was quoted as saying by the Times of Israel. “We start at a young age and bring the message of innovation to the entire population, encouraging young people to see science and technology as their future.”