Management of diabetes‐related foot disease in the outpatient setting during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Pang, Bingyan; Shah, Priyal M.; Manning, Laurens; Ritter, J. Carsten; Hiew, Jonathan; Hamilton, Emma J.

The use of telephone and/or video consultation in routine management of acute diabetes‐related foot disease (DFD) before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic at a tertiary hospital is unprecedented. In March 2020, the Diabetes Feet Australia (DFA) released a national guideline to inform DFD management during the COVID‐19 pandemic. The present study aimed to describe the adherence to the DFA guideline of managing acute DFD using telephone and/or video consultation at a Western Australian tertiary hospital during this period. We found >80% adherence rate to the DFA guideline and the management of active DFD using telephone and/or video consultations was feasible and acceptable in carefully selected patients.