Every 20 seconds somewhere in the world someone loses a leg due to the complications of diabetes. After such amputations, over half of these people will die within 5 years. At this moment, millions of people with diabetes suffer from poorly healing foot ulcers, which usually develop as a result of several factors. Successfully managing these ulcers, or, even better, preventing them, depends on the close collaboration of various types of health professionals; they must integrate up-to-date care in their speciality into an effective multidisciplinary foot team. The key factors for optimal outcomes are that team members share common goals and follow evidence-based, comprehensive guidelines.
The mission of the International Working Group on the Diabetic Foot (IWGDF) is to produce evidence-based guidelines to inform health care providers all over the world on strategies for the prevention and management of diabetic foot disease. Thus the IWGDF aims to reduce the high patient and societal burden of diabetic foot disease.
In 1996 the International Working Group on the Diabetic Foot (IWGDF) was created to develop guidelines on the prevention and management of diabetic foot disease. These are international and multidisciplinary evidence-based guidelines that are produced through a rigorous, scientific process, undertaken by those with expertise in clinical science and those with experience in clinical practice from all over the world. In addition, systematic reviews and practical guidelines are produced. All are published in an international scientific journal and on this website. The IWGDF Guidelines are adapted for many different countries and have been translated into most major languages of the world.
To stay up-to-date, the IWGDF Guidelines are updated every 4 years. Existing Guidelines are rewritten and new chapters are added under the supervision of the IWGDF Editorial Board. The next IWGDF Guidelines will be presented in 2023.
This website provides the IWGDF Guidelines, its translations, information on the many international multidisciplinary experts involved in writing the IWGDF Guidelines, some history and information on the next update.