The COVID-19 pandemic is driving significant change in the healthcare system and disrupting the best practices for diabetic limb preservation, leaving large numbers of patients without care. Patients with diabetes and foot ulcers are at increased risk for infections, hospitalization, amputations, and death. Podiatric care is associated with fewer diabetes-related amputations, ER visits, hospitalizations, length-of-stay, and costs. But podiatrists must mobilize and adopt the new paradigm of shifts away from hospital care to community-based care. Implementing the proposed Pandemic Diabetic Foot Triage System, in-home visits, higher acuity office visits, telemedicine, and remote patient monitoring can help podiatrists manage patients while reducing the COVID-19 risk. The goal of podiatrists during the pandemic is to reduce the burden on the healthcare system by keeping diabetic foot and wound patients safe, functional, and at home.
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Research Article|
March 25 2020
All Feet On Deck—The Role of Podiatry During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Preventing hospitalizations in an overburdened healthcare system, reducing amputation and death in people with diabetes
Lee C. Rogers, DPM;
Lee C. Rogers, DPM
American Board of Podiatric Medicine, Los Angeles, California
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Lawrence A. Lavery, DPM, MPH;
Lawrence A. Lavery, DPM, MPH
Professor, Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center Dallas, Texas
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Warren S. Joseph, DPM, FIDSA;
Warren S. Joseph, DPM, FIDSA
Editor, Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association, Bethesda, Maryland
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David G. Armstrong, DPM, MD, PhD
David G. Armstrong, DPM, MD, PhD
Professor of Surgery and Director, Southwestern Academic Limb Salvage Alliance (SALSA), Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
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J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 0000.
Citation
Lee C. Rogers, Lawrence A. Lavery, Warren S. Joseph, David G. Armstrong; All Feet On Deck—The Role of Podiatry During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Preventing hospitalizations in an overburdened healthcare system, reducing amputation and death in people with diabetes. J Am Podiatr Med Assoc doi: https://doi.org/10.7547/20-051
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