The World Diabetes Foundation has offered Egypt 137,920$ for the project: "Step by Step Project" improving diabetes foot care in Egypt.

Mansoura Faculty of Medicine is established since 1963. It is the first to establish a Diabetic Foot Clinic, Diabetes Unit at Specialized Medical Hospital. "Mansoura Diabetic Foot Clinic" is rapidly evolving into a center of excellence for Foot Care. The DF team has organized multiple national educational meetings across different governorates to increase the awareness about DF problems and value of prevention. They have also organized 2 international DF training courses including practical demonstrative cessions. The Clinic provides a wide range of foot care facilities including; Education of the patients, Annual foot screening, Multidisciplinary approach for DFU management, Plantar pressure measurement, Custom made orthotics, Casting facilities…….etc.

The clinic is considered now a referral center receiving patients from almost all over the country.
The diabetic foot is a major unaddressed public health problem in Egypt as well as other developing countries. A grant from the Foundation will improve a greatly neglected area of health care. Similar project was successfully conducted by the WDF before in both Tanzania and India.
The project will be guided by diabetic foot team, Specialized Medical Hospital, Mansoura University in coordination with the Ministry of Health. The aim is to set up 30 DF clinics all over Egypt. Training of 30 teams (doctor & nurse) will be achieved through 2 educational courses. Through this practical training program, participants will be taught to take a history, perform physical examination, screen for neuropathy and ischaemia, classify and risk categorize the foot. They are going to be able to identify feet at risk, organize appropriate foot care as well as education of their patients. After the advanced the course they are going to be able to take timely action in cases of ulceration or advanced foot problems. Referral pathways will be discussed, and adapted to their local circumstances. The simple instrumentations that will be introduced to the teams are going to be sufficient to set-up the minimal model foot clinic as described by the International Working Group of Diabetic Foot.

Having trained personnel to screen patients' foot and provide simple maneuvers will greatly upgrade the service provided and highlight the importance of foot care not only for the patients but also for other healthcare providers. The presence of such minimal model DF clinic will be able to pick and treat a lot of simple DF cases that will eventually sum to great reduction of amputation.This will direct the financial input of the ministry of health gradually to the cost effective preventative expenses.
There will be a long-term networking of all the participants through a DF medical program developed by Mansoura DF team and designed and supported by the IT Center of Mansoura University.

This program will enable the leading team at Mansoura University to provide support for all the newly developed DF teams across the country.