Ceremony at Beijing’s historic teaching hospital marks new chapter in transpacific collaboration on diabetic foot disease and limb preservation
BEIJING — May 20, 2026 — Peking University First Hospital (PKUFH), one of China’s most historic academic medical centers, today formally conferred a Visiting Professorship on David G. Armstrong, DPM, MD, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Surgery and Neurological Surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California and Director of the USC Limb Preservation Program.
The appointment was presented by PKUFH President Yang Yinmo, MD, a noted hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgeon, at a multidisciplinary diabetic foot symposium held at the hospital’s Xishiku Street campus in central Beijing. The ceremony followed remarks from Professor Xu Zhangrong, a senior figure in Chinese diabetes care who has been instrumental in advancing diabetic foot programs across the country.
The Visiting Professorship was proposed and shepherded by Wen Bing, MD, Director of the PKUFH Department of Plastic Surgery and Burns and the affiliated Wound Care Center, and Chairman of the Chinese Limb Saving Society. Professor Wen first raised the appointment in May 2025 over dinner in Beijing, and the certificate was formally executed last month.
“Professor Armstrong is widely regarded as the leading figure in the world in limb preservation,” Professor Wen said in conferring the appointment. “His work has reframed how we think about the diabetic foot — not as an isolated complication, but as the visible edge of a systemic disease that demands a team. To welcome him as a Visiting Professor of our hospital is to bring that vision more directly into our daily practice.”
Several other speakers echoed similar sentiments during the program, citing Professor Armstrong’s role in shaping global standards of diabetic foot care, his founding of the international Diabetic Foot Conference (DFCon), and his leadership of the American Limb Preservation Society (ALPS).
“It is a deep honor to be welcomed into the lineage of an institution that has given Chinese medicine so many of its firsts,” Professor Armstrong said following the ceremony. “From the country’s first medical school in 1915 to its first kidney transplant under the late Wu Jieping, PKUFH has been a place where the field has been moved forward. To stand alongside Professor Wen, President Yang, and Professor Xu and to be invited to add a small thread to that fabric is a privilege I will not forget.”
The afternoon program included a tour of the hospital’s wound treatment center, the shared-care endocrinology clinic, and the rehabilitation department’s orthotics facility, followed by a round table on diabetic foot care that brought together endocrinology, interventional vascular surgery, plastic and burn surgery, and rehabilitation. Speakers included Yang Min, MD, Director of Interventional Vascular Surgery, on endovascular management of chronic limb-threatening ischemia in patients with chronic kidney disease; Gu Nan, MD, of Endocrinology, on medical management of the patient with diabetes; and Liu Jin, MD, and He Rui, MD, of Plastic and Burn Surgery, on community-based wound care development and clinical case presentations. Professor Armstrong delivered the keynote, “Diabetic Foot Surgery: Your WIfI Settings,” on contemporary application of the Society for Vascular Surgery’s Wound, Ischemia, and foot Infection classification system.
The collaboration extends a transpacific exchange in limb preservation that Professor Armstrong has cultivated over more than a decade with Chinese colleagues, including Professors Wuquan Deng (Chongqing), Lianrui Guo (Beijing), and Li Yan (Guangzhou). The Beijing visit forms part of a 13-day, five-city China program coordinated with CR Double-Crane Pharmaceutical that also includes the Chinese Diabetes Symposium in Shijiazhuang, CODHy China in Shanghai, and the SUNYIXIAN Forum in Guangzhou.
“Diabetes-related lower-extremity complications remain a global emergency,” Professor Armstrong added. “More than half of people with a diabetic foot ulcer develop an infection, and amputation continues to carry a five-year mortality that rivals the most lethal cancers. Building durable bridges between centers like PKUFH and USC, where the toe, flow, and go disciplines work in the same room, is how we move the needle.”
About Peking University First Hospital
Founded in 1915 as Beijing Medical Specialty School Hospital, PKUFH is the oldest national public teaching hospital in China. The 1,800-bed academic medical center is consistently ranked among the country’s leading hospitals and is affiliated with Peking University Health Science Center.
About the USC Limb Preservation Program and SALSA
The University of Southern California Limb Preservation Program and the Southwestern Academic Limb Salvage Alliance (SALSA), both directed by Professor Armstrong at the Keck School of Medicine, are dedicated to reducing preventable amputation through team-based clinical care, training, research, and global advocacy. The program operates under the “toe, flow, and go” interdisciplinary model uniting podiatric surgery, vascular intervention, and rehabilitation.
Leave a Reply