An app for wound care? Yes, one is coming soon.

The National Science Foundation recently awarded $1.2 million to the Worcester Polytechnic Institute to develop a smartphone app that helps people with advanced diabetes and foot ulcers manage their care better.

The proposed application would be installed on a smartphone and integrated wirelessly with a personal glucose meter and scale. The application would track and archive blood sugar levels and weight, and use the phone’s camera to capture and analyze images of lesions known as foot ulcers, which are potentially dangerous complications that affect people with advanced, uncontrolled diabetes.

The first two years of the project are slated for technology research and development, ostensibly leading to a prototype for refinement. If the development phase proceeds as planned, the second two years of the project will test the new application in a clinical trial at the University of Massachusetts’ medical school.

“This is an ambitious project that we hope will create a useful tool for people who are dealing with advanced diabetes,” said Diane Strong, Ph.D., one of the project’s leaders.