Most people living with diabetes juggle multiple comorbidities, each demanding attention from different specialists. A patient may see an endocrinologist on Monday, a podiatrist the following week, and a cardiologist the week after that. When care is distributed across multiple specialists, visibility into how conditions intersect can be limited. As a result, emerging issues may not be identified as early as they could be.
This gap becomes especially dangerous when it comes to diabetic foot complications. Patients with diabetes have a 34% lifetime risk of developing a diabetic foot ulcer (DFUs), which is the the #1 cause of lower extremity amputations. DFUs occur due to a combination of intertwined factors: reduced blood flow slows healing, nerve damage hides early warning signs, and even minor pressure or infection can escalate quickly. When care happens in separate silos, no one is tracking the full story, and critical warning signs can slip through the cracks, leading to higher risk of hospitalization or amputation.
An interdisciplinary approach bridges these gaps. Through shared information, ongoing collaboration, and unified decision-making, it ensures that nothing is missed, every risk is addressed, and patients receive the comprehensive support they truly need. This approach addresses gaps in care, enabling early intervention and reducing complications.
The Gap Between Guidelines and Reality
The urgency behind this approach is clear when you look at the current state of care. Podimetrics recently released a Provider Insights Report which brought together leading podiatry experts who convened at the APMA Annual Meeting in July 2025 to address the significant burden of DFUs. The report looks at Practical Implementation Gaps in the U.S. and acknowledges that although strong international guidelines exist, U.S. care is still fragmented.
The panel reached a clear consensus that the interdisciplinary team is essential to DFU prevention. Because risk is multifactorial, care must be coordinated across disciplines and tailored to each patient’s needs. This includes patient education, routine foot monitoring, tailored offloading, and timely intervention, all guided by risk stratification and continuous communication among providers. When the entire care team is aligned and engaged, patients are more likely to stay involved in their care and receive the guideline-based support that reduces ulcer incidence, recurrence, and complications.
Similarly, a 2024 commentary on “Addressing the Gaps in Diabetic Foot Ulcer Management” observed that preventive care integration lags behind other high-risk chronic conditions. The study identified limited interdisciplinary team access as a major U.S. gap.
Clinical Evidence Behind the interdisciplinary Advantage
The Provider Insights Panel highlighted findings from a 2025 prospective cohort study that examined what happens after a DFU heals. The study found that patients who received regular interdisciplinary post-ulcer follow up (at least annually) had a 21% recurrence rate, compared with 42% for those receiving minimal follow up. Nearly a twofold reduction in risk simply by keeping the right team engaged.
Why does this work? Recurrence often begins quietly, in ways that are easy to miss when no one is watching the full picture. This can look like a callus slowly turning into a pressure point that damages tissue beneath the surface, or a shoe insert that wears down just enough to shift pressure back onto a vulnerable area. When an interdisciplinary team remains consistently engaged, care continues before problems form, and problems are addressed proactively.
Early intervention, seamless collaboration, and sustained attention are not just best practices, they are also the lifelines that can mean the difference between healing and irreversible loss. This is where every discipline, every role, and every human in the care journey matters.
What a Fully interdisciplinary Model Looks Like in Action
So what does an interdisciplinary approach look like in practice? How do you bring specialists together, align goals, and make sure patients are at the center of it all?
In a recent episode of the Smart Steps podcast by Podimetrics, Dr. Alyson Myers of Montefiore Einstein explained how her team built a clinic that cares for the whole person, not just the wound. Endocrinology, podiatry, vascular surgery, infectious disease, and behavioral health all come together, caring for the patient as one unified team rather than separate specialties working in isolation.
As Dr. Myers puts it: “It’s really important that we are crossing into other disciplines — ophthalmology, cardiology, and sometimes orthopedic surgery. This is never just endocrinology. I am talking to people from all disciplines all the time.”
The Montefiore team built this model because no single specialty could solve the problem alone. By integrating multiple disciplines into a shared workflow, the approach accounts not only for clinical needs but also for social and logistical barriers many patients face, including transportation challenges, time constraints, and the burden of navigating multiple appointments across locations. Seeing patients collaboratively, often in the same clinic on the same day, allows patients to travel once while care teams align in real time. This structure supports earlier detection of small changes, faster response, and fewer preventable setbacks, while creating the potential for significant improvements in both patient and provider satisfaction, and reducing the risk of hospitalization or limb loss.
As podcast host and Podimetrics Medical Director Dr. Gary Rothenberg puts it, “One health care provider cannot do everything. We all have our specialty, and when we put the patient in the middle, that is when it works best. So it is not just a buzzword, it is a call to action.”
And when that call to action is answered, everything changes for the person on the other side of the exam table. The foot gets attention, but so does circulation, mental health, nutrition, and the barriers that could stand in the way of healing. The right care arrives at the right time because every specialist is looking out for the same person, not just the same problem.
A Future Built on Connected Care
When endocrinologists, podiatrists, vascular surgeons, and other specialties, commit to a common goal, each discipline sees what others might miss and together, they form a safety net where gaps and blind spots become opportunities for early intervention and healing.
Preventing a DFU, or even worse complications like hospitalization or amputation, takes steady teamwork over time. The future of diabetes care is built on shared understanding and real connection across disciplines. When care becomes collaborative and patients stay supported from every angle, healing lasts longer, independence is protected, and more people keep moving through life on their own two feet.
