NUI Galway will host a conference entitled Diabetic Foot Management: Optimising Care Using a Holistic Approach on Saturday, 10 March. This is the premier conference on Diabetic Foot Management in Ireland organised in partnership with the The School of Podiatry at NUI Galway, The Office for Continuous Professional Development (CPD) in Podiatry, The Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists of Ireland, The Organisation of Chiropodists/Podiatrists of Ireland, The Institute of Chiropodists and Podiatrists and the Wound Management Association of Ireland.

The conference will include presentations from national and international experts in the fields of health and education. The conference will hold plenary presentations and workshops on the latest evidence-based approaches to diagnosis, clinical management and education of patients with Diabetes.

Dr Caroline McIntosh, Head of Podiatry at NUI Galway, said: “We are facing a national crisis, the Institute of Public Health estimate that by 2015 there will be 232,000 people with diabetes in Ireland. This is a 62% increase on the 2007 figure of 141,000.”

Karen Fahy, National Education Officer for CPD in Podiatry expressed concern: “Recent studies have found that awareness of the complications of diabetes among the public is low, for example only 18% of people surveyed knew that complications of diabetes can lead to having an amputation, despite the fact that half of all lower limb amputations carried out between 2005-2010 in Ireland were linked with diabetes. It is fundamental that all health professionals including podiatrists involved in the treatment of the diabetic foot are informed in the latest evidence-based approaches to holistic management of the potentially high risk diabetic foot and this is the aim of our conference.”

The keynote speaker at the conference is Matthew Young, Consultant Diabetologist at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, where he leads a multidisciplinary team of the largest diabetic foot clinic in Scotland. Dr Young also serves on the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) group, for diabetic foot guidelines, and the Foot Advisory Group of the Scottish Diabetes Group and has published extensively on diabetes and its complications, particularly the diabetic foot. He will deliver a lecture on the “Improved survival of diabetic foot ulcer patients 1995-2008, possible impact of aggressive cardiovascular risk management.”

Other speakers at the conference will include: Dr Caroline McIntosh, Co-chairperson of the Conference, Senior Lecturer and Head of Podiatry, NUI Galway; Dr Brian McGuire, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, NUI Galway; Dr Sean Dinneen, Consultant in Diabetes and Endocrinology, Galway University Hospital; Maeve Gacquin, Senior Dietitian, The Galway Clinic; Dr Marcus Simmgen, Consultant Physician, Roscommon County Hospital and Galway University Hospital; Dr Georgina Gethin, Co-chairperson of the Conference and Head of the Centre for Nursing and Midwifery Research in the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery in RCSI; and Dr David Gallagher, Consultant Physician in Infectious Diseases and General Internal Medicine, Galway University Hospital and St. James's Hospital, Dublin.

In addition to the lectures workshops will also take place at the conference.

For further information contact Karen Fahy, National Education Officer for CPD in Podiatry at karen.fahy@nuigalway.ie.

-ENDS-