University of Arizona’s Armstrong Wins 2010 Roger Pecoraro Award from the American Diabetes Association

Contact: Jo Marie Gellerman, (520) 626-7219 Feb. 18, 2010

David G. Armstrong, DPM, MD, PhD, professor of surgery and director of the Southern Arizona Limb Salvage Alliance (SALSA) at the University of Arizona Department of Surgery, has been selected as the 2010 Roger Pecoraro awardee and lecturer by the American Diabetes Association.

The Pecoraro Award is considered the highest honor in the world of amputation prevention and wound healing. The award is named in honor of Roger Pecoraro, who died prematurely two decades ago. He was a pioneering physician in the field of amputation prevention whose work paved the way toward understanding the causes of limb-threatening wounds and infections and how to treat and prevent them.

Dr. Armstrong, a podiatrist, has published many of the key works in the field of amputation prevention that have spanned an astonishing array of topics, including epidemiology, vascular and infectious diseases, wound healing, neurology, classification, team-building, biomechanics, biology, and limb salvage surgery. He has spoken at symposia in more than 40 countries and has published more peer-reviewed manuscripts than any other podiatric physician in history.

He has mentored many of the leaders in the field. One of them, Lee C. Rogers, DPM, associate director of the Amputation Prevention Center at Valley Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, is the current chair of the ADA’s foot care interest group and will officially award Dr. Armstrong.

“Professor Armstrong is the world’s thought leader in amputation prevention; there is no one more deserving of this award and I am humbled by the task of giving it to him.” The award and lectureship will officially take place this June at the American Diabetes Association’s annual symposium in Orlando, Florida, which draws 15,000 physicians and scientists.

Dr. Armstrong becomes the youngest award recipient in its two decade history. “I am so honored to have even been considered for the Pecoraro,” said Dr. Armstrong. “To be named alongside so many of my friends and mentors is not only a thrill, but also a responsibility to continue to make a difference.”