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 2021, the IWGDF will start the production of a new set of evidence-based guidelines to inform health care providers all over the world on strategies for the prevention and management of diabetic foot disease. We will use the GRADE system to developed these guidelines. Each guideline will be underpinned by one or more systematic reviews of the scientific literature, and there will an update to the widely praised practical guidelines. Each of the guidelines is created by a separate working group (usually of 12 members) comprising clinicians, scientists, and other experts-in-the-field from all over the world, who are not bound by any mandate or instructions from outside the IWGDF.
The IWGDF guidelines are produced in accordance with our vision, which is to:
- develop evidence-based guidelines with recommendations that aim to be applicable in daily practice and that reflect the level of (un)certainty of the knowledge obtained, to reduce the high burden of disease that societies and people with diabetic foot disease experience;
- bring together experts, including both those with expertise in clinical science and those with experience in clinical practice, from all over the world and from relevant disciplines involved in the prevention and management of diabetic foot disease, to produce these guidelines;
- form independent working groups, not bound by any mandate or instructions from outside the IWGDF, and synthesize without prejudice the current knowledge on the prevention and management of diabetic foot disease;
- produce these guidelines in a way that facilitates their translation for local or national circumstances, recognizing that health care systems and resources differ across the world;
- stimulate dissemination of these guidelines using all available channels, methods and partners;
- consistently update these guidelines, as frequently as necessary and at least once every four years; and
- define important areas for future research to help improve the outcome of diabetic foot disease.
The IWGDF Editorial Board is responsible for this process, as described in their terms of reference. For the IWGDF 2023 guidelines, the Editorial Board consists of the following members: