Dr. David Armstrong, Renowned Podiatrist, Joins UA Department of Surgery To Build Southwest’s Most Advanced Clinic for Wound Care
August 25, 2008
David G. Armstrong, DPM, PhD, a renowned podiatrist and researcher, has joined The University of Arizona Department of Surgery as professor of surgery and director of the new Southern Arizona Limb Salvage Alliance (SALSA) at University Medical Center and the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System.
“The most common reason a person with diabetes is admitted to the hospital is for a foot problem. It takes a team to prevent an amputation, and a group of clinicians working together can make a real difference,” said Dr. Armstrong, who co-directs the SALSA program with Joseph Mills, MD, UA chief of vascular surgery.
“Diabetes is a significant health issue that greatly impacts Arizona and the Southwest,” said Dr. Mills. "Dr. Armstrong and our new limb salvage clinic, SALSA, offer a service that's much-needed throughout the region.”
“The UA Department of Surgery, University Medical Center and the VA are expanding the fight on diabetes with more treatment options and research programs,” said Rainer Gruessner, MD, UA surgery department chairman. “SALSA blends into our pancreatic and islet cell transplantation programs because many of these patients have diabetes-related foot problems and neuropathy. Dr. Armstrong is a great addition to the UA and to our armatarium against this disease.”
Dr. Armstrong instituted a similar program at the Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in Chicago that achieved international recognition in the field of diagnosis and treatment of the diabetic foot and its related diseases/complications. He has collaborated with clinicians to help create programs in amputation prevention on six continents. He and his colleagues developed classifications of risk and wounds that are used as standards worldwide.
After receiving a degree in podiatry from California College of Podiatric Medicine, Dr. Armstrong completed a diabetic foot fellowship at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Department of Orthopaedics. He also received a master’s degree in tissue repair and wound healing from the University of Wales College of Medicine, and a PhD from the University of Manchester College of Medicine.
The author and co-author of more than 240 peer-reviewed research papers in more than two dozen scholarly medical journals, as well as more than two dozen book chapters, Dr. Armstrong is co-editor of the American Diabetes Association’s (ADA) Clinical Care of the Diabetic Foot.
He has delivered lectures and completed visiting professorships in more than 40 nations, and was selected as one of the first six International Wound Care Ambassadors. He also is the recipient of numerous awards from national and international medical organizations, including the inaugural Georgetown Distinguished Award for Diabetic Limb Salvage. In 2008, he was the 25th, and youngest-ever, member elected into the Podiatric Medicine Hall of Fame.
Dr. Armstrong is current Chair of Scientific Sessions for the ADA’s Foot Care Council, a past member of the National Board of Directors of the American Diabetes Association, and past commissioner with the Illinois State Diabetes Commission. He sits on the Infectious Disease Society of America’s Diabetic Foot Infection Advisory Committee. Dr. Armstrong is founder and co-chair of the International Diabetic Foot Conference (DF-Con), the largest annual international symposium on the diabetic foot in the world.