WHS Session M: The Diabetic Foot Consortium Going Beyond the Wound: Science, Care, Communication, and Community

The NIH/NIDDK Diabetic Foot Consortium (DFC) shows that healing diabetic foot ulcers takes more than wound closure—it takes coordinated science, standardized care, clear communication, and community partnership. This session spans the full arc of consortium work: from DFC resources and public engagement, to reducing practice variation, to a multidimensional biomarker matrix and the wound-healing trajectory, and finally to translating data into community impact. Together, the talks show how consortium-scale collaboration links mechanistic science, biomarker-driven prediction, and clinical practice into a single continuum of care. DFC Overview: Resources, Collaboration, and Public Engagement Crystal Holmes, DPM, CWSP; Shomita Steiner, PhD From Practice Variation to Standards of Care Brian Schmidt, DPM The Biomarker Matrix: Beyond a Single Marker Kellen Chen, PhD The Methylation Landscape: Cellular Memory and Its Role in Predicting DFU Healing Kanhaiya Singh, PhD From Data to Community Impact Semere Wagahta, PhD