David G. Armstrong

David G. Armstrong (born February 18, 1969) is an American podiatric surgeon and researcher most widely known for his work in amputation prevention, the diabetic foot, and wound healing.

He and his frequent collaborators, Lawrence A. Lavery and Andrew J.M. Boulton, have together produced many key works in the taxonomy, classification and treatment of the diabetic foot.

He is Professor of Surgery with Tenure and director of the Southwestern Academic Limb Salvage Alliance (SALSA) at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California and has produced more than 650 peer reviewed manuscripts and more than 110 book chapters.

Armstrong was raised with his younger brother, Darrin B. Armstrong, a schoolteacher, in Santa Maria, California.

His father, Leo N. Armstrong, was a noted podiatrist in California and figures into many of Armstrong's anecdotes, lectures, and writings.

As a child, he traveled worldwide with his family and a core group of physicians, mostly podiatrists.

This influenced his later career as an ambassador for diabetic foot care and Podiatry.

After attending the Dunn School in Los Olivos, California, Armstrong attended Occidental College in Los Angeles and later the California College of Podiatric Medicine, where he graduated with honors.

It was during his college years that he met his future wife, Tania C. Armstrong, on a family trip to Egypt.

It is in honor of this that their first child Alexandria A. Armstrong, later received her name.

Armstrong performed his residency at the Kern Hospital for Special Surgery in Detroit, where much of his interest in the diabetic foot emerged.

Additionally, it was where he became aware of the works of two influential clinician-researchers, Andrew JM Boulton, of the University of Manchester, and Paul Wilson Brand, of the Hansen's Disease Center in Carville, Louisiana.

Following his surgical training in Detroit, Armstrong was prepared to return to Santa Maria to work in his father's practice.

Days before graduation, he was handed a letter inviting him to apply for a fellowship at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

His visit and subsequent acceptance into the program brought him into close proximity of the next two important members of his development, Lawrence A. Lavery, then a junior faculty member, and Professor Lawrence B. Harkless, Armstrong's chief.

Armstrong's relationship with Lavery was, by all accounts, strong from the beginning.

Lavery and Armstrong wrote an astonishing 28 manuscripts in the first nine months of his fellowship.

Many of those became important foundational works in epidemiology, classification and treatment of the diabetic foot.

Since that time, Armstrong and Lavery, nicknamed “the Lennon and McCartney of the Diabetic Foot”, have written more than 150 manuscripts, books and book chapters including the American Diabetes Associations Clinical Care of the Diabetic Foot (ISBN 1-58040-223-2).

The two researchers credit Harkless for providing the environment for this to occur, as there had previously never existed a full-time academic podiatry faculty of this kind in an American medical school.

Following Lavery's departure to develop a private nationwide diabetic foot program, Armstrong remained prolific, but soon grew interested in new challenges.

Armstrong subsequently received an invitation from Dr. Brent P. Nixon to start his own research service at the Southern Arizona VA Healthcare System in Tucson Arizona.

This program, is responsible for producing many key works in the area of diabetes care and amputation prevention.

Some of the most notable were the ability to accurately monitor activity and the refinement of offloading the diabetic foot wound.

Additionally, Armstrong began a close transatlantic working relationship with Professor Andrew JM Boulton in Manchester.

This mentorship led to a period of intense activity and a PhD and MD from the University of Manchester College of Medicine as well as a Master of Science in Tissue Repair of Wound Healing at Professor Keith Harding's University of Wales College of Medicine.

It was also during this time that Armstrong was reacquainted with George Andros, a prominent vascular surgeon.

This renewed friendship led to the development of the Diabetic Foot Global Conference, (DFCon).

This meeting, the largest annual diabetic foot gathering in the world, hosts delegates from 50 countries and all 50 U.S. states in more than 10 medical and surgical disciplines.

During his cross-country move from Tucson to Chicago, Armstrong's father and greatest influence died.

This led to an increasing determination by Armstrong to further advance the specialty that had literally nurtured him.

Following his tour in Tucson, Armstrong accepted an offer to serve as Professor of Surgery and Associate Dean at Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science.

He founded the Center for Lower Extremity Ambulatory Research (CLEAR), which rapidly became the most productive podiatric research group in the world.

This program produced or recruited several key members of the field including Stephanie C. Wu, James Wrobel, Lee C. Rogers, Nicholas J. Bevilacqua, Bijan Najafi, Manish Bharara and Vickie Driver.

This group produced many key works in the literature, becoming amongst the first podiatrists to be published in JAMA and the Lancet.

Armstrong also became the first tenured podiatrist in the history of Rosalind Franklin University and the Scholl College.

Armstrong, responding to his love of the Desert Southwest, the rampant diabetic epidemic there, and his long-standing friendship with renowned vascular surgeon Professor Joseph Mills, was recruited again to Tucson and the University of Arizona.

It was there he founded, with Mills, the Southern Arizona Limb Salvage Alliance (SALSA).

This program serves as a model for interdisciplinary care, worldwide.

It was also here that Armstrong and Mills coined the term the “Toe and Flow” team.