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Meet America's Vascular

Podiatrist of the Year 2023

 

· The Way To My Heart

 Honoring a practitioner, educator, and advocate for patients with Peripheral Artery Disease. 

San Rafael, California January 4, 2023 – Dr. David Alper is having a tangible, actionable impact around the world on limb salvage during his retirement. Because of this, The Way To My Heart honors Dr. David Alper as the first Vascular Podiatrist of the year and names him as the organizations Chief Podiatric Advisor. With David Alper’s leadership through The Way To My Heart, we will help patients around the globe fight Critical Limb Ischemia (CLI), the most advanced stage of Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD), restricted blood flow in mainly the leg arteries due to plaque build-up, in which complications during disease progression can include sores and wounds that won’t heal on the feet.  His experience, insight, and passion, in coordinationwith The Way To My Heart, will expand education, advocacy, and support programs, particularly in underserved areas, to prevent amputation and improve the
quality of life for those with PAD. 

The Way To My Heart founder and CEO Kym McNicholas says:

“Dr. Alper’s passion and purpose are powerful. “He puts words into practice, going beyond the podium with the message of prevention and proper management of PAD, diving deep into the trenches alongside patients, answering their real-time cries for help with tangible, actionable, limb-saving support without the boundaries of time and space.” 

Dr. David Alper has spent the past year on the front lines helping The Way To My
Heart break down the structural barriers that limit physical access to critical life and limb-saving resources to the most at-risk, vulnerable communities around the world. He has volunteered countless hours, day and night, even on weekends helping our network of more than 10,000 patients globally via social media, messenger, text, and phone. He provides real-time education, high-touch advocacy, and support by answering timely questions, validating concerns, offering a second opinion, teaching questions to facilitate a productive and satisfying
conversation with their providers, educating on prevention and care of wounds, and steering towards appropriate care for individual presentation of disease.  His tireless efforts have resulted in the tangible saves of more than two dozen PAD Warriors from amputation.  

Dr. David Alper explains his passion for working with The Way To My Heart:

“I love what The Way To My Heart has created because itgives me an opportunity to engage with patients in an entirely new, impactful way, helping to fill the gap for patients between appointments where they tend to fall through the cracks and not get the timely, preventative, and limb-saving care they need. Patients need to own their disease. It’s the only way to conquer it, otherwise it owns you.  You need the tools to handle it, manage it,and put it to sleep. The Way To My Heart provides that.” 

As Chief Podiatric Advisor, Dr. David Alper will not only to continue to engage in critical real-time conversations with patients on the frontlines but also guide The Way To My Heart in the expansion of its 24/7 Leg Saver Hotline to provide additional foot and wound care support for patients between appointments. Dr. Alper will also help develop scalable webinars and video series to not only provide additional educational resources to patients but also spread even
greater awareness of PAD and advanced treatment options that prevent amputation. His efforts will continue to further The Way To My Heart’s mission to remove logistical, financial, and emotional barriers to timely, effective, limb-saving care. By increasing access to educational resources, high-touch advocacy, and real-time support, The Way To My Heart will continue to improve the quality of life for patients. 

About The Way To My Heart 

The Way To My Heart is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) nonprofitproviding education, advocacy, and support for more than 10,000 P.A.D. patients around the world. It's high-touch approach is successful in getting patients to the right physician and complying with lifestyle modifications to delay procedures and prolong procedure results. The Way To My Heart is on the front
lines with physicians and at vascular conferences around the world to keep knowledge current in order to best help P.A.D. patients get timely, effective care. Its efforts are dramatically reducing healthcare costs by eliminating unnecessary amputation and improving patient outcomes. 

About Dr. David Alper 

Dr. Alper is highly regarded in thepodiatric community. After 36 years as a practicing physician, he has spent his retirement so far expanding his limb amputation prevention efforts using his
connections in the diabetes, podiatry, and vascular worlds to create collaborations between medical societies. He currently serves on the board of the Wound Care Collaborative Community (WCCC) and the Foot Ankle Health section of the American Public Health Assn. (APHA). Dr. Alper currently is a member of the Leadership Board of the American Diabetes Assn. (ADA) in New England, having served as President for over 20 years, and is an elected member of the Board of Trustees of the American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA).  

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