A Toe-and-Flow Welcome in Dublin: Standing Room Only at The Beaumont Multidisciplinary #DiabeticFoot Symposium #ActAgainstAmputation

Faculty and organizers in the lecture theatre at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, after the first keynote session of the Beaumont Multidisciplinary Diabetic Foot Symposium (18 June 2026). Left to right: Áine Stakelum (organizing committee, Beaumont vascular surgery); Madhu Tiruveedhula (Basildon Hospital); Arnie Hill (RCSI, Professor and Chair of Surgery); Elrasheid Kheirelseid (Beaumont, symposium founder and host); Prof. David G. Armstrong (USC / SALSA, keynote); Eoghan de Barra (Beaumont, infectious diseases); Marta Lobato (Hospital Universitario de Cruces, Bilbao); August Ysa (Hospital Universitario de Cruces, Bilbao); and Adam Isaac (Kaiser Permanente / Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group, Largo, MD).

There are meetings you attend, and there are meetings you feel. The Beaumont Multidisciplinary Diabetic Foot Symposium — held 18 June 2026 at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin — was firmly the second kind.

Built by the vascular surgery, endocrinology and infectious diseases teams at Beaumont together with the RCSI Department of Surgery, and architected by my friend and host Elrasheid Kheirelseid, the day was a living argument for the toe and flow model: podiatry and vascular surgery shoulder to shoulder, with endocrinology, infectious diseases, orthopaedics, wound care, nursing and our allied health colleagues all in one room, speaking the same language about the same patient.

I had the honor of opening with a keynote in the first session and then rolling up my sleeves for a hands-on workshop on diabetic wound assessment and care with Adam Isaac, an all-star former SALSA Fellow. The through-line of my talk was the one I keep returning to: we should stop treating the diabetic foot as something we cure, and start managing it as a disease in remission — counting ulcer-free, hospital-free and activity-rich days the way oncology counts its own. Healing is not the finish line. It is the beginning of lifelong surveillance.

The international texture was a joy. From Bilbao, August Ysa and Marta Lobato brought the below-the-knee and below-the-ankle revascularization that is rewriting what a desert foot can hope for in CLTI. From the UK, Madhu Tiruveedhula on forefoot reconstruction and Ramy Elkady on the surgical management of infection. From across Ireland, a deep bench spanning diabetes, infectious diseases, podiatry and interventional radiology. It was exactly the kind of room I love most: weird ideas and interesting people, colliding productively.

A particular bow to the two vascular surgery residents who quietly ran the entire machine — Áine Stakelum and Megan Power Foley. Anyone who has organized a meeting knows the truth: the faculty get the applause, but the registrars get it done.

The inaugural 2024 edition drew more than 170 delegates and earned a highly commended citation at the Irish Healthcare Awards. On the evidence of this year, the Beaumont symposium is well on its way to becoming one of the essential stops on the limb-preservation calendar.

To Elrasheid, Áine, Megan, and the entire Beaumont and RCSI family — thank you for the warmth, the rigor, and the craic. Until next time.

#DiabeticFoot #LimbPreservation #ToeAndFlow #DiabeticFootInRemission #AmputationPrevention #VascularSurgery #Podiatry #Beaumont #Dublin #RCSI #CLTI #WoundCare