that detects and prevents diabetic foot ulcers.
Western Albemarle high school senior Meg Richey is awarded a scholarship at the 18th annual Emily Couric Leadership Forum at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel on Wednesday. Richey, who will attend Stanford University, was awarded a scholarship of $30,000 for her work creating an orthotic that detects and prevents diabetic foot ulcers.
Meg Richey was this year’s main award winner, and she received a $30,000 scholarship.
A senior at Western Albemarle High School who plans to study computer science at Stanford University, Richey has a provisional patent for a medical device and is the youngest person to study at the University of Virginia’s Biomedical Engineering Design Lab.
Her device, named after her childhood bus driver, Mike Morris, was envisioned after Morris died after developing a diabetic foot ulcer.
“He was the first and last person we saw during the day,” Richey said. “It was so important, especially in middle school, to feel like someone genuinely cared.”
The Morris Orthotic is a custom foot insole with sensors that detect changes in pressure at the bottom of a diabetic patient’s foot. Possibly the first custom-fit orthotic with sensor technology, it might alert a patient to life-threatening conditions that are hard to detect … read more