Our work just passed 100,000 citations. One hundred thousand opportunities to pay it forward.
A milestone worth sharing
The Google Scholar snapshot accompanying this post reads 100,015 citations, an h-index of 136, and an i10-index of 591. I had to look twice.
This is the first time a podiatric surgeon’s body of work has crossed the 100,000-citation threshold. That is a meaningful moment for our specialty, and one I am very happy to share.
It also gives us a chance to say thank you to the people who made it possible. See here for the research conselation!
There are a lot of hands on this work
When we crossed 95,000 citations, I wrote about the hands on the work. At 99,000, the thought was paying it forward. Those two ideas belong together: people build something, share it, and give the next group a place to begin.
Larry Lavery, Andrew Boulton, Sicco Bus, Bijan Najafi, Joe Mills, Caitlin Hicks, and so many other friends and collaborators have helped shape these questions and the work that followed. The list stretches across institutions, disciplines, continents, and generations.
Then there are the residents and fellows who ask the question the rest of us have stopped asking. The nurses, research coordinators, engineers, statisticians, and clinical teams who make an idea testable. The patients and families who give us their time, their trust, and a very clear reminder of what matters.
To our SALSA team at USC, our C2SHiP colleagues, our ALPS community, and collaborators around the world: thank you. Limb preservation remains a team sport.
From shared knowledge to more time living
The threads running through this work are familiar to readers of this blog: wound healing, offloading, the diabetic foot in remission, coordinated “toe and flow” care, and technology that helps us understand what happens between clinic visits.
They begin with questions about a person’s life. How can we help a wound heal? How can we keep it healed? How can we preserve mobility, independence, and the ordinary routines that make a day worth having?
A citation tells us that a publication has entered someone else’s work. It does not, by itself, tell us that care improved or an amputation was prevented. We still have to do that work.
The outcomes we keep aiming for are more ulcer-free, hospital-free, activity-rich days. More time at home. More time moving through the world.
Keep paying it forward
For the students, residents, and fellows coming into podiatric medicine and surgery, I hope this milestone offers encouragement. Questions that start at the bedside can travel a very long way. Find good collaborators. Be generous with ideas. Stay curious enough to let someone change your mind.
And to everyone who has read, questioned, cited, challenged, or built on our work: thank you for carrying it further.
The next paper, the next collaboration, and the next patient are already waiting.
The snapshot
Google Scholar metrics in the image shared September 28, 2026: 100,015 total citations; h-index 136; i10-index 591. The “Since 2021” column shows 47,792 citations, h-index 88, and i10-index 451. These are citation-period metrics, not a count of papers published since 2021. Citation totals change as Google Scholar updates.
Related reading
- 95,000 citations: Ninety-Five Thousand Hands on the Work
- 90,000 citations: Armstrong and SALSA team milestone
- 99,000 citations: Paying it forward on LinkedIn
References
Onward and upward, together. #ActAgainstAmputation
Congratulations to Dr. Armstrong! 100,000 citations is fully worthy of your excellent work.
Walter