Speakers
Join an international panel of leading orthopedic experts and thought leaders as they share groundbreaking research, innovative techniques and forward-thinking strategies. This free, online event gives you direct access to the voices driving the future of orthopedic care.
David Armstrong
DPM, MD, PhD (USA)
Dr. David Armstrong, DPM, MD, PhD, serves as Distinguished Professor of Surgery and Neurological Surgery with tenure at the University of Southern California. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Manchester College of Medicine and a Master of Science in Tissue Repair and Wound Healing from the University of Wales College of Medicine. Dr. Armstrong is the founder and co-director of the Southwestern Academic Limb Salvage Alliance (SALSA) and serves as founder and co-chair of the International Diabetic Foot Conference (DF-Con). He is the founding president of the American Limb Preservation Society (ALPS), a medical and surgical society dedicated to building interdisciplinary teams to eliminate preventable amputation in the United States and worldwide. His professional committee appointments include serving on the Infectious Disease Society of America's (IDSA) Diabetic Foot Infection Advisory Committee and as the US-appointed delegate to the International Working Group on the Diabetic Foot (IWGDF).
Chen Yongsheng
MBBS (Singapore)
Chen Yongsheng, MBBS, serves as Adjunct Associate Professor and Head of Division and Consultant in the Division of Orthopedic Trauma Surgery, Department of Orthopedic Surgery at both the National University Hospital (NUH) and Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH). Dr. Cheng is a proponent of limb salvage surgery and regularly employs advanced techniques to avoid major amputation in patients with limb-threatening conditions. In May 2024, he became the first to introduce the technique of Transverse Tibial Transport (TTT) to Singapore, helping to improve limb salvage rates in patients with severe diabetic foot infections.
Qikai Hua
MD (China)
Qikai Hua, MD, serves as Director and Professor of Guangxi Medical University 1st Hospital. Dr. Hua holds numerous prestigious positions including membership in ASAMI China Division and the Japanese Trauma External Fixation Limb Lengthening Society. He serves as Chief Member of the Chinese Integrative Medicine Society Bone Transport Management Committee for Diabetic Foot and Micro-Circulation Regeneration, Deputy Director of the Chinese TTT Diabetic Foot Group of the Chinese Medical Association Orthopedic Division, and Deputy Director of the Orthopedic Traumatology External Fixation Committee of the Chinese Integrative Medicine Association. Additionally, he serves as vice chair of the Chinese College of Chronic Wound Center and as a Committee member of the Chinese Medical Association Orthopedic External Fixation and Limb Reconstruction. Dr. Hua also holds the position of Director committee member of the Guangxi Medical Association External Fixation Division. As a pioneer and thought leader in the management of severe diabetic foot disease with Transverse Tibial Transport (TTT) since 2014, Dr. Hua has been instrumental in advancing this innovative treatment approach.
Venu Kavarthapu
FRCS (Tr&Orth) (UK)
Professor Venu Kavarthapu was appointed as an orthopedic consultant at King’s College Hospital NHS Trust in London, UK, in 2006. He is the orthopedic lead of the King’s Multi-disciplinary Diabetic Foot Unit and has set up the Charcot foot reconstruction and functional limb salvage service that has been recognized internationally. His clinical research interest is on diabetic foot deformity corrections and infection clearance surgery. He introduced several surgical protocols and techniques on diabetic foot surgery and published extensively in these areas. He established the widely recognized ‘International Symposium on Diabetic Foot Surgery’ and ‘King’s Charcot Foot Reconstruction Cadaver Workshop’. He is invited to many key diabetic foot meetings and is a dynamic member of several specialist societies. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Clinical Orthopedics and Trauma, a panel member of Diabetic Foot SIG for the Vascular Society of Great Britain and Ireland and a panel member of the Charcot International Consensus Committee 2023. He is the current President of the International Association of Diabetic Foot Surgeons.
Alexander Kirienko
MD (Italy)
Professor Alexander Kirienko serves as Head of the Division of External Fixation and Bone Lengthening at Humanitas Research Hospital. With over 30 years of extensive experience in the application of the Ilizarov osteosynthesis method, Prof. Kirienko specializes in treating complex diseases of orthopedics and traumatology. His expertise encompasses circular external fixation, treatment of bone deformities, complex sequelae of fractures, infections, congenital malformations, polio and congenital and acquired deformities of the foot, including stretching with the Ilizarov method. His hands-on experience was obtained while working in Russia in close contact with Professor Ilizarov himself, the inventor of the method, where he specialized in applying the device to numerous pathologies of the musculoskeletal apparatus. Prof. Kirienko is a member of several prestigious international orthopedic associations, including the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), American Limb Lengthening and Reconstruction Society (LLRS), European Paediatric Orthopaedic Society (EPOS), and the Italian Society of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (SIOT).
Xiaorui Jiang
MD (China)
Dr. Xiaorui Jiang serves as Director of the Endocrinology Foot Ankle Department at Yantai Liuhuangding Hospital in Shandong, China. As a renowned limb preservation and deformity reconstruction orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Jiang specializes in diabetic foot management, reconstruction of hand and foot disorders, peripheral neuropathy, traumatic reconstruction of limbs and both arthroscopic and open surgeries. He holds several prestigious committee positions, including Committee Member of the Translational Medicine Division of the Chinese Medical Association Endocrinology and Metabolic Medicine Division, Committee Member of the Reconstructive Foot Ankle Division of the Chinese Rehabilitation Medicine Association, and Deputy Committee Member of the Shandong Integrative Medical Society Diabetic Disease Complication Committee.
Gang Li
MD, PhD (Hong Kong, China)
Gang Li, MD, PhD, serves as Professor and Principal Investigator at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Shenzhen Advanced Technology Research Institute and Director of the Center for Locomotor System Regenerative Medicine and Technology, Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China. Dr. Li brings extensive international experience to his current role, having served as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Orthopedics at Oxford University, UK, lecturer and senior lecturer in the Department of Orthopedics at Queen's University Belfast School of Medicine in the UK, professor at the Cancer and Cell Biology Research Centre at Queen's University Belfast in the UK, and full professor in the Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology at the Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His main research interests focus on stem cell biology and applications in musculoskeletal tissue engineering, as well as innovative applications of distraction osteogenesis technologies. Dr. Li currently serves as Executive Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Orthopedic Translation and holds editorial board positions with Bone and Joint Research, Bone, and the Journal of Orthopedic Research.
Joseph Mills
MD (USA)
Joseph Mills, MD, serves as Reid Professor in the Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy in the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and Director of BCM STEP (Save The Extremity Program). He previously served as Professor and Chief of Vascular Surgery and Program Director at the University of Arizona College of Medicine (1994–2015) and Co-Director of the Southern Arizona Limb Salvage Alliance (SALSA) in Tucson. Dr. Mills is the first author of the SVS WIfI classification, an effort that redefined chronic limb-threatening ischemia, especially in the growing population of people with diabetes. He serves as Co-editor of Rutherford's Vascular Surgery (7th-9th editions) and holds editorial board positions including the European Journal for Vascular and Endovascular Surgery and serves as Vascular Surgery Section Co-Chief Editor for UpToDate. As principal investigator for over 45 clinical trials covering a wide spectrum of vascular disease with a focus on limb salvage, chronic limb-threatening ischemia, and diabetic foot ulcers, Dr. Mills has made significant contributions to the field. His extensive leadership roles include past president of the Peripheral Vascular Surgery Society, treasurer of the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS), chair of the SVS Distinguished Fellows Council, secretary-treasurer of the Western Vascular Society, past director of the American Board of Surgery (ABS), past chair of the Vascular Surgery Board (2010-2013), and a 7-year term on the ACGME RRC-S (2014-21). He has also served as past president of the Association of Program Directors in Vascular Surgery (APDVS), the Rocky Mountain Vascular Society and the Western Vascular Society.
Vinod Panchbhavi
MD (USA)
Vinod Panchbhavi, MD, serves as Editor-in-Chief of Techniques in Foot and Ankle Surgery and holds editorial board positions on multiple prestigious publications, including Foot and Ankle International and internet-based education sites such as Footeducation.com. He serves as a reviewer for numerous additional journals, including the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery and Clinical Orthopedics and Related Research. Dr. Panchbhavi holds the position of Chairman of the Post Graduate Training Committee at the national level in the American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society. His professional memberships include the General Medical Council, American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society and American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons. He is a Fellow of both the American College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Lew Schon
MD (USA)
Lew Schon, MD, serves as Director of Orthopedic Innovation at The Institute for Foot and Ankle Reconstruction at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland. As an internationally recognized foot and ankle surgeon, Dr. Schon is renowned as a surgeon, researcher and teacher. He is the co-inventor of and one of the few surgeons in the world to offer patients the Zimmer™ Total Ankle Replacement. Dr. Schon has co-invented several other notable devices including the WAVE calcaneal plate, the DJO Airlift brace, the Arthrex ProStop, and Darco's Toe Guard and Pneumatic Night Splint. He served as former president of The American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS), having also served on the board and numerous committees. Dr. Schon maintains his academic appointments as practicing physician and Associate Professor at both Johns Hopkins and Georgetown Universities.
Zhongming Shi
MD (China)
Zhongming Shi, MD, serves as Chief Physician and Director of the Foot and Ankle Section in the Department of Orthopedics at Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. Dr. Shi holds several prestigious leadership positions, including vice chair of the Foot and Ankle Committee of the Orthopedic Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association (CMDA) and vice chair of the Foot and Ankle Committee of the Sports Medicine Branch of CMDA. He serves as chair of the Foot and Ankle group within the Orthopedic Branch of the Shanghai Medical Association and is a member of the AOFAS International Outreach Committee.
Alex Wee
FRCS (Tr&Orth) (UK)
Alex Wee, MBBS, is an Orthopedic and Trauma Consultant Surgeon who was appointed at Frimley Park Hospital in 2006 following fellowships at Addenbrookes and Stanmore. Dr. Wee specializes in foot and ankle surgery with subspecialty interests in diabetic foot infection and Charcot foot reconstruction, neurological foot deformity and complex hindfoot deformity. He serves as the Orthopedic clinical lead for diabetic foot surgery and is part of the diabetic multidisciplinary team (MDT). Dr. Wee is the founder and co-chair of the Surrey Ankle Society, which meets quarterly to discuss challenging cases. He serves as supervising consultant for the Surrey foot and ankle fellowship and is actively involved in registrar training and education. Additionally, Dr. Wee works as a Medical Examiner and holds a master's degree in Bioethics and Medical Law.
Baofu Wei
MD, PhD (China)
Baofu Wei, MD, PhD, serves as Director of the Foot and Hand Orthopedic Surgery Service at Shandong Linyi Peoples Hospital in China. Dr. Wei completed a research fellowship in Orthopedic Foot Ankle and Sports Medicine at Duke University. As a surgical anatomist, he is the author and editor of the Surgical Atlas of Foot Ankle and co-editor of the Surgical Atlas Arthroscopic Techniques and Anatomy of Foot and Ankle published by Springer Publishing.
Dane K. Wukich
MD (USA)
Dr. Dane K. Wukich M.D., MSc. is Professor and Chair of the Department of Prosthetics and Orthotics at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He also serves as the Associate Dean for Innovation and Advancement at the UT Southwestern School of Health Professions. Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Wukich held the endowed Dr. Charles F. Gregory Distinguished Chair of Orthopedic Surgery at UT Southwestern Medical Center from 2016 to 2024 during which he guided the department to national ranking as determined by US News and World Report. Dr. Wukich has published over 200 manuscripts listed on PubMed and 14 book chapters. He served as co-editor of the fifth edition of The Foot in Diabetes which was published in 2020. His scholarly work has been cited 8,293 times. He has lectured in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Dr. Wukich received the Roger E. Pecoraro M.D. Award by the American Diabetes Association, given in memory of Dr. Pecoraro, recognizing a researcher who has made scientific contributions and demonstrates an untiring commitment to improving the understanding of detection, treatment, and prevention of diabetic foot complications. Dr. Wukich received The Paul Brand M.D. Award, presented at the Desert Foot Conference, which recognized his contribution to excellence in diabetic foot care. This award is given in Honor of Dr. Brand a missionary surgeon who dedicated his career to treating patients with neuropathic complications, initially in India and later in the US. Dr Wukich has also been honored with the MedStar Georgetown University Distinguished Achievement Award in Diabetic Limb Salvage, which recognized his contributions to education, surgery, and scholarship in this field. His active clinical practice involves caring for underrepresented minority patients Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas and military veterans at the North Texas Veterans Administration Medical Center. He received his medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine and was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha, the national honor medical society. He completed his orthopedic residency at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and foot and ankle fellowship at The Cleveland Clinic. Prior to his position as chair at UT Southwestern Medical Center he was Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He is currently Chair of the IWGDF Working Group for Charcot neuroarthropathy and immediate past President of the International Association of Diabetic Foot Surgeons. Dr. Wukich is a decorated United States Army Veteran and served as combat medic in Iraq and served in Germany during the Cold War. He is the recipient of two Army Commendation Medals, two Army Achievement Medals, the National Defense Service Ribbon, The Southwest Asia Service Medal, and the Liberation of Kuwait Medal. Over the past two decades Dr. Wukich has served military veterans initially at Pittsburgh’s VAMC and now in North Texas. Dr. Wukich has completed a Master of Science Degree in Leadership and Organizational Development from the University of Texas @ Dallas and serves as an executive and professional coach for leaders in healthcare. Additionally, he attended formal leadership programs at the Harvard School of Public Health, University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and Katz School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh.
Hailing Xu
MD (China)
Hailing Xu, MD, holds numerous prestigious leadership positions within Chinese medical organizations. Dr. Xu serves as Secretary-General of the Foot and Ankle Surgery Group of the Orthopedics Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, Deputy Director of the Foot and Ankle Working Committee of the Orthopedic Physicians Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, and Deputy Director and Secretary-General of the Chinese Diabetic Foot Alliance. Additionally, he serves as Deputy Group Leader of the Foot and Ankle Surgery Group of the Orthopedics Branch of the Beijing Medical Association and Chairman of the Foot and Ankle Medicine Professional Committee of the Beijing Society of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine.
Alan Y. Yan
MD (USA)
Alan Y. Yan, MD, serves as a Clinical Associate Professor, Chief Foot Ankle Surgeon and Director of the Sanford Limb Preservation Center at University of South Dakota, Sioux Falls in South Dakota. He previously held positions as Assistant Professor and Director of Research for Foot Ankle Injury at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Assistant Professor at Creighton University Medical Center. Dr. Yan completed his residency training at Johns Hopkins and fellowship training at Duke University and the University of Minnesota Regions Hospital. He holds several committee positions including Foot Ankle Evaluation Committee Member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), Committee Member of the AOFAS Membership Committee, FAI reviewer, and FAS editorial member. Dr. Yan is the co-editor of the Surgical Atlas Arthroscopic Techniques and Anatomy of Foot and Ankle published by Springer Publishing and co-editor with Professor Alexander Kirienko of the upcoming second edition of Ilizarov Technique for Complex Foot and Ankle Deformities.
Hui Zhao
MD, PhD (China)
Hui Zhao, MD, PhD, serves as Chief of the Hand and Foot and Ankle Division in the Department of Orthopedics at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Capital Medical University, and Chief of Diabetic Foot Disease. Dr. Zhao completed training as a Visiting Fellow of Foot Ankle Orthopedic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He specializes in diabetic foot management and spinal cord stimulation in treating severe diabetic foot disease complications.
Wang Chen
MD (Singapore)
Dr. Wang Chen is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon at Singapore National University Hospital, specializing in foot and ankle surgery. He previously served as a Foot and Ankle Surgeon at Shanghai Huashan Hospital. Dr. Chen earned his medical degree from Shanghai Fudan University and completed a prestigious clinical fellowship in foot and ankle surgery under Professor Beat Hintermann in Switzerland.
Michael H. Theodoulou
MD, FACFAS (USA)
Dr. Michael H. Theodoulou, DPM, FACFAS, is Chief of Foot and Ankle Surgery at Cambridge Health Alliance and Assistant Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. A board-certified podiatric surgeon and Fellow of the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons, he also serves as Section Editor for the Journal of Foot and Ankle Surgery. Dr. Theodoulou is President of the Northeast Region of ACFAS and Past President of the Massachusetts Foot and Ankle Society. With over 35 years of clinical experience, he is widely recognized for his expertise in reconstructive and sports-related foot and ankle surgery.