Hello, My name is Steve Rith-Najarian, I'm a Family Physician with Indian Health Service and an Area Diabetes Consultant with a special interest in diabetic foot care. This web-based training module is designed to improve your foot care skills for management of the patients you serve in Indian Health. At the conclusion of this training, we hope to meet the following objectives: first to list 4 risk factors associated with diabetic foot complications; second to be able to conduct a complete diabetic foot exam; third, list 3 interventions associated with decreasing risk for diabetic foot complications; fourth, state 4 educational objectives for patients at high risk for foot complications; and last, describe 4 components of the chronic care model related to improving diabetic foot care.

This training is divided into 3 sections: First, how to screen for patients who are at high risk, second, the practical interventions that are associated with improved clinical outcomes, and lastly, how to implement these practices into your own clinic. Diabetic foot care is important for primary clinicians because it's a common problem that we take care of and there are opportunities for prevention. Consider these facts, 1 in 4 adult patients we see in Indian Health are likely to have diabetes, and of these, 20% who present to clinic will have an acute problem on foot examination.

Over the course of their lives, people with diabetes have a 15% chance of developing a foot ulcer and 5-10% will progress to amputation. Those who experience an amputation have a 50% mortality rate within 5 years. And most importantly, amputations and ulcerations can be prevented with resources that are currently available in our clinics..