July 13, 2019

Don’t miss the abstracts sessions today to bring yourself up to speed on the latest evidence in podiatric medicine and surgery.

The Oral Abstracts session will cover the Akin Osteotomy, Charcot Reconstruction, microbiomes in diabetic feet, rotational flaps in partial amputations, and disparities in inpatient management of diabetic foot infections. Also on the roster are the effectiveness of multidisciplinary group practices in reducing amputation rates, and biomarkers for prediction of healing in chronic ulcers.

David Hatch Jr., DPM, will kick off the session with a lecture on allowing evidence-based medicine to influence patient care.

Dr. Hatch said his advice to attendees will be to “scrutinize what you read and hear, and use the resources available. Sometimes we like to see how the evidence fits our treatment and attempt to prove it right through literature that we cherry-pick. An honest and scientific approach considers the inverse: Find a topic, take a step back and see what everything says about that topic. Then decide the appropriateness of your course of care.”

He strongly encouraged podiatrists to become more involved in producing evidence, particularly around orthopedic surgical procedures, where he said evidence is somewhat more lacking. “I would say that there are more aspects of orthopedic treatments that could be considered without a solid evidence base. I suspect therapies in the realm of podiatric medicine likely have more classic evidence due to the overlapping contributions of medicine and specialties such as dermatology, neurology, and vascular specialists, among others. While we benefit greatly from orthopedic and additional specialty research, active research among podiatrists is paramount for the advancement of our field and continued recognition of the contribution of DPMs.”

During the Poster Abstracts session, authors will be on hand to discuss their findings with attendees. Be sure to attend to peruse the posters and support the authors, including many residents and students. You’ll also be able to scan for CECH in the poster exhibit.