Dr. Kristien Van AckerConsultant Diabetologist, International Working Group on Diabetic Foot IWGDF Chair, Belgium
Dr. Kristien Van Acker completed her internal medicine/dialectology training in 1989 at the University of Antwerp. She also founded the first multidisciplinary Diabetic Foot Clinic for Belgium. Dr. Van Acker finished her PhD thesis at the same University in 2001, titled "The Diabetic Foot a Challenge for Policy Makers and Health Care Professionals.”
For more than 10 years she was the stimulating power behind national preventive programs in her country and was awarded several times for this innovative work. In 2005, she was instrumental in setting up the first 22 recognized diabetic foot clinics in Belgium, assisted by governmental reimbursement. For more than a decade, she has been a respected teacher at the High Education School of Podiatry in Gent.
Since 2001, Dr. Van Acker has gained extensive experience in the field of diabetic foot education in developing countries. As an active IWGDF Representative she was heavily involved as a faculty member of the ‘Step-by-Step’ programs and chaired many courses throughout the world.
Together with the Step-by-Step program and Research Group (SSDRG) she founded and chaired the Train-the-Foot-Trainer projects, which were recently very successfully executed in Brasilia for the SACA region and in Tobago for the Caribbean region.
She is co-author of many peer reviewed articles, book chapters and books, of which the IDF WDD publication, ‘Time to Act, Put Feet First,’ in 2005 was widely raved throughout the world. During this time, she was on the board of the ‘Eurodiale’ group. In addition, she has been involved with the twinning program in Senegal, Dakar since 2001. She is also a consultant of the Tropical Institute in Antwerp, Belgium and a lecturer on Public Health and Chronic Disease Management matters. She is interested in and a promoter of data-collection and e-Health.
Dr. Van Acker has been a member of many boards, notably as the longstanding Vice-Chair of the IDF CS/IWGDF and the DFSG Europe. Today, she is the Chair of the International Working Group and the Chair of the Consultative Section of the Diabetic Foot of International Diabetes Federation (IDF). She is clinically active as a diabetes consultant and runs outpatient multidisciplinary diabetic foot clinics in her country.
