Two Days
With the world's experts

Multi-disciplinary topics covering all areas of diabetic foot disease

Meet the experts

Our unique workshops offer you the ability to network and converse with your peers and our experts on topics relevant to your practice and research from vascular, infection, charcots to biomechanics

Program

The Diabetes Feet Australia Conference 2017 program boasts national and international key note speakers, Plenary sessions and interactive workshops. Multi-disciplinary topics covering all areas of diabetic foot disease including clinical practice and scientific evidence are included in the program.

Over two days at the QT Gold Coast Hotel, you will enjoy the latest in research and practice, and meet with industry partners offering the latest products and services. Our social program includes an official welcome and registration event, an interactive conference dinner along with fantastic 'Meet the Expert' workshops led by our international speakers.

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International Speakers

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Interactive Workshops

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Plenary topics
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Our Speakers

We are proud to announce six internationally acclaimed speakers whose influence is critical to best practice treatment and research in diabetic foot disease around the globe. 

Dr Randall Walcott

Dr Randall Wolcott

M.D. (U.S.A.)

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Biography

Dr Randall Wolcott M.D. (U.S.A.)

 

Dr. Wolcott began his wound care practice over 11 years ago and has been practicing medicine for 28 years. He is passionate about healing his patients, which has resulted in his quest for the best medical advances in wound care. His personal research at the Wound Care Center’s own Research and Testing Laboratories and his collaboration with numerous experts in the wound care field have earned him international recognition. His work has been published in several textbooks, as well as prominent journals like the Journal of the American Medical Association and Journal of Wound Care. Also, he is often asked to lecture across the country and in parts of Europe and the United Kingdom at various medical societies and universities.

Dr Bijan Najafi

Prof Bijan Najafi

PhD, MSc.(U.S.A)

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Biography

Dr. Bijan Najafi, Ph.D., MSc.

Dr. Najafi is currently serving with Baylor College of Medicine, as Professor of Surgery and Director of Clinical Research, in the Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy, Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery. He received a Ph.D. degree in Bioengineering followed by a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Applied Biomechanics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Tech (Lausanne, Switzerland), and in Neuroscience at Harvard University, Neuromotor Control Lab. Before joining BCM, he served as Professor of Surgery (with Tenure) at the Department of Surgery as well as Director of interdisciplinary Consortium on Advanced Motion Performance (iCAMP), chair of research operation at the Southern Arizona Limb Salvage Alliance (SALSA), member of Arizona Center on Aging, Associate Member of Arizona Cancer Center, and scientific advisory board member of Arizona Arthritis Center.

He has almost two decades of experience in designing bio-inspired sensors for objective evaluation of healthy state of patients with locomotor dysfunctions, over 200 scientific publications in peer reviewed journals or conference proceeding with more than 2900 citations, five issued patents and seven pending patents, and have been PI or a key investigator on over 40 industrial, national and international grants ($35M+). He worked with a wide network of clinical and bioengineering collaborators across the globe primarily in the clinical areas of falls, frailty, gait, cognitive impairment, and diabetes and diabetic foot ulcers.

His unique expertise is the translation of wearable technologies for more accurate movement assessment of patients in their natural environment where they're the most comfortable and active. His goal is to better understand how people move through their environment. In this way, he believes we may be able to fundamentally change the way we objectively measure quality of life for people across disciplines. He has assisted in successful translation of several innovative technologies for commercialization in the area of remote heath monitoring, precision medicine, and movement assessment including several wearable and mHealth technologies for activities monitoring, gait analysis, balance assessment, automatic fall detection (PAMSys™, LEGSys™, BalanSens™, ACTIVPers™, etc), patient adherence (PAMTag™), and various technologies for foot problems management including prevention of diabetic foot ulcers (SmartSox Novinoor, SurroSens Orpyx, SmartMat, and Podimetrics).

He has mentored 150+ postdoc, research fellows/interns, graduate, undergraduate, premed, and medical students, several of them received prestigious awards from their achievements while working in his team. He is also serving as Editor, Associate Editor, and guest editors for several scientific journals including Section Editor for Gerontology, ‘Regenerative and Technological Section’, Journal of Surgery, Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology, and Journal of American Podiatric Medical Association (JAPMA). He has served as the chair of research operation at the Southern Arizona Limb Salvage Alliance (SALSA), a collaborative clinical and research alliance dedicated to advancing care of the diabetic foot and preventing amputations in North America and worldwide.

Prof Nicolaas Schaper

Prof Nicolaas Schaper

M.D., PhD (Netherlands)

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Biography

Professor Nicolaas Schaper,  M.D., PhD (Netherlands)

 

Professor Nicolaas Schaper studied Medicine at the University of Leiden and was then educated in Zwolle and Groningen internist. He then received his PhD in 1990 on the impact of diabetes mellitus on the groeihormoonsecretie.Vanaf 1988 he works in Maastricht, where he is the subdivision of Division and trainer since 2003 Endocrinologie.Zijn special expertise lies in the field of general endocrinology, transsexuality and complex mellitus.Hij diabetes is a member of various national and international working groups and networks, such as section Endocrinology and diabetes Mellitus core group of Dutch internists Verenging. He is also chairman of the national guideline Diabetic Foot, member of national guidelines Diabetic Neuropathy, member Scientific Advisory Diabetes Foundation Netherlands, and scientific secretary Directive International Diabetic Foot.

He has always been very closely involved in the training of Medicine of the University of Maastricht.

He has received several national and international awards for his scientific activities in the field of diabetic foot ulcers and diabetes education.

AndrewHill

Dr Andrew Hill

MB ChB., FRACS (New Zealand)

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Biography

Dr Andrew Hill, MB ChB., FRACS (New Zealand)

Dr Hill is Clinical Director of Vascular Surgery with specific interests in endovascular therapy. He practices in open Vascular Surgery also with interests in Vascular Access, distal/tibial bypass grafting and Aortic surgery. He has an interest in the rational use of Vascular Intervention.

He is the co-director of the Vascular/Interventional Research Group at Auckland Hospital which specialises in First in Human Vascular Intervention. He is an Investigator in 10 currently enrolling peripheral endovascular trials and 20 previous trials. He is the local Principal Investigator for the BEST-CLI trial randomising between Open Bypass and Endovascular Intervention for Critical Limb Ischemia.

Since 1997 he has been co-director the Aortic Stent Graft Programme at Auckland Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand. He has performed or mentored over 1000 stent graft cases including Thoracic and fenestrated cases.

He is a past Senior Examiner of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

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Dr Venu Bhamidipaty

MBBS., FRACS (New Zealand)

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Biography

Dr Andrew Hill, MB ChB., FRACS (New Zealand)

Dr Hill is Clinical Director of Vascular Surgery with specific interests in endovascular therapy. He practices in open Vascular Surgery also with interests in Vascular Access, distal/tibial bypass grafting and Aortic surgery. He has an interest in the rational use of Vascular Intervention.

He is the co-director of the Vascular/Interventional Research Group at Auckland Hospital which specialises in First in Human Vascular Intervention. He is an Investigator in 10 currently enrolling peripheral endovascular trials and 20 previous trials. He is the local Principal Investigator for the BEST-CLI trial randomising between Open Bypass and Endovascular Intervention for Critical Limb Ischemia.

Since 1997 he has been co-director the Aortic Stent Graft Programme at Auckland Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand. He has performed or mentored over 1000 stent graft cases including Thoracic and fenestrated cases.

He is a past Senior Examiner of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

Dr Jaap van Netten NL

Dr Jaap van Netten

PhD (Netherlands)

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Biography

Dr. Jaap van Netten (Netherlands)

Jaap van Netten is a human movement scientist from the Netherlands, specialized in clinical research on foot problems, most notably in people with diabetes. Two years after his graduation, he obtained his PhD in the field of rehabilitation medicine (University Medical Center Groningen, NL), studying people’s use of custom-made orthopaedic shoes. He continued working as postdoc researcher in ZGT ([Hospital Group Twente], Almelo and Hengelo, NL), joining the diabetic foot team. He developed to a senior researcher position, supervising projects in the three research lines of the diabetic foot team. Next to this, he was head of the Scientific Bureau of ZGT.

Early 2016, Van Netten moved to Australia, to continue to build a strong link between research and clinical practice, but on the other side of the world. He is appointed Senior Research Fellow at the Queensland University of Technology, and Scientific Director of Diabetes Feet Australia. His scientific work has so far resulted in 50+ publications and obtaining >1.5 million dollar in research funding.

Van Netten is also the secretary of the International Working Group on the Diabetic Foot Editorial Board and its Prevention Working Group. In these roles he is co-authoring the evidence-based international consensus guidance on the prevention and management of foot problems in diabetes. The latest version of this guidance has been launched in May 2015 during the International Diabetic Foot Symposium in The Hague; the road to the next update in 2019 has already started.

Call for papers

Researchers with results from original work in the field of diabetic foot disease are encouraged to submit an abstract. Successful submissions are provided the opportunity to deliver an oral presentation during one of the two oral presentations sessions of the conference. These sessions are an important part of DFA 2017, as they show the newest and brightest research works from around Australia.

All abstracts will be reviewed by our scientific committee. We will be looking for abstracts that display high-quality original research with relevance for clinical practice, now or in the future. All abstracts selected for presentation compete for the “DFA conference 2017 best abstract award”.

Criteria

High-quality original research with relevance for clinical practice, now or in the future. Oral presentations only.

Submissions format: Word document, maximum one page, include authors, institutions and e-mail address of primary author. Abstract word count maximum 350. Guidelines for accepted presentations will be forwarded at a later date.

Due Dates

Abstract Submissions Closed

 June 5th 2017

Decisions Announced

July 17th 2017

 

Terms and conditions:

• The primary author is responsible for the accuracy of the abstract.
• The primary author is responsible for ensuring that all co-authors have viewed and approved the content of the abstract being submitted.
• The primary author is the presenter. If accepted, the presenter must register as a delegate of the conference.
• All abstracts will be reviewed by the DFA Conference 2017 - Scientific Committee. The committee’s decision is final.
• Authors can submit more than one abstract, but the committee will give preference to someone's first abstract over someone else's second in case of similar quality.
• By submitting your abstract you agree to have your abstract (if accepted) published on the conference website and in the conference proceedings abstract book.