Thoughtful as ever, Pete Lazzarini and Rob Fiteridge respond to data showing 4 fold variation in amputation across New Zealand with the suggestion that regions with lower amputation rates may be associated with Toe and Flow teams. This would stand to reason, as rates of up to 10-fold in the UK and USA are in […]

Important work from multiple friends and colleagues from across the EU show that patients were more likely than physicians to identify potentially limb threatening wounds when presenting for primary care visits. The key message: when visiting your doctor, knock your socks off! J Wound Care. 2019 Aug 1;28(Sup8):S4-S14. doi: 10.12968/jowc.2019.28.Sup8.S4. — Read on www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/31393783/

On this episode we discuss:  – Being a second-generation podiatrist and this year his daughter has begun her podiatry training – The defining moment that he fell in love with the high-risk foot. – Treating patients in the absence of pain, both surgically and mechanically is something else.  – Making career choices based on passion, […]

Superb summary of several approaches going on at our unit and beyond.

For more than two generations, our team and others have explored the use of temperature monitoring to predict and prevent diabetic foot ulcers . Typically, this is done by comparing one foot to its corresponding contralateral side. New data suggest that algorithms can be used to accurately predict ulceration using only one foot. This has […]

David G. Armstrong, Professor of Surgery and Director of the Southwestern Academic Limb Salvage Alliance (SALSA) at Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California (USC) delivered the Andrew Clarke Honorary Keynote at the 12th Biennial Podiatry Association of South Africa Congress held in Cape Town this week. The lecture is named for Andrew […]

We’ve long made the case (since the 1990s) that smart subscriptions to smart devices may be a way of the future. With the advent of “remote patient monitoring” as a service in the USA, it appears as though this mode of prevention might ultimately pay! Imagine both insurance companies / health ministries paying for evidence-based […]

Mader and coworkers present data that further highlight the importance of focusing on the patient in diabetic foot remission. Patients with previous diabetic foot ulcer are prone to re-ulceration and (re)amputation, to various comorbidities, have significantly impaired quality of life and increased mortality. We aimed to evaluate the risk of foot related complications and mortality […]

Compelling work by Kara Spiller and team suggest that …”macrophages respond to secreted factors from microbes by upregulating inflammatory markers, and that the effects are strongly dependent on the monocyte donor. Ultimately, increased understanding of macrophage-microbe interactions will lead to the development of more targeted therapies for diabetic foot ulcer healing”

Wonderful work from Pete Lazzarini and coworkers lay out an ambitious pathway to end preventable diabetes-related amputation in Australia and worldwide.