I wanted to find the top 20 podiatrists to follow on LinkedIn. I've spent three years building a presence here, and I use AI extensively for work and research, so I went to Claude and asked the obvious question: who are the top LinkedIn voices in podiatry.
I'm on the list. That's not the point.
The point is that AI tools are becoming the new front door to credibility and searchability. Everyone has gotten a message from someone with a blank profile or a handful of scattered posts, and everyone has quietly moved on because of it. That instinct only gets stronger as AI becomes the first stop for vetting a name instead of the last one.
This is a snapshot in time. The race is already running.
I asked Claude to do the research and I let it run. I corrected it more than once along the way. That correction process was its own lesson in what's searchable and who gets left out of it.
The first pass missed the single biggest name on the list entirely. Worth sitting with that for a second. It's a reminder that "who's loud" and "who's actually followed" are not the same list, and the second one is harder to compile because most of podiatry's real reach sits behind a wall that just says "500+."
Professor of Surgery, USC Keck School of Medicine; Director, Southwestern Academic Limb Salvage Alliance (SALSA)
Widely cited as the world's top-ranked scholar in diabetic foot research. This is not a growth hack: a decade-plus of near-daily, substantive content on limb preservation, alongside a genuinely prolific academic output. No one else on this list is close on raw, verified number.
CMO, Mankato Clinic; Clinical Director, Nabla; Chief Innovation Officer, Stratum Med; founder, Clinicianpreneur
Named a "LinkedIn Social Media Influencer" in podiatry's own professional media (Dean's Chat). Content: AI deployment, physician leadership, clinician communication.
I publish this newsletter. That makes my own name on this list a legitimate thing to be skeptical of. The number above is public on LinkedIn right now; it's not a figure I calculated or self-reported. Verify it yourself before you trust it.
100th President, American Podiatric Medical Association, inaugurated March 2026
Sitting national office holder using LinkedIn for live advocacy, not ceremony: publicly posted about a direct CMS meeting on Medicare payment policy. Also runs "Foot & Ankle Insider" on Substack; national and international lecturer; industry consultant.
Founder/CEO, Naboso Technology
Funded venture ($3M raise, Tokyo distribution partnership), global speaker, dual presence across LinkedIn (industry/KOL) and Instagram (@thefunctionalfootdoc).
Consultant, AI and diabetic wound care; author, speaker
Named one of Podiatry Management's "America's Most Influential Podiatrists." This is a peer-voted honor, not a follower count, but a real signal. LinkedIn bio explicitly foregrounds AI.
Residency Director, Western Reserve Hospital; faculty, Kent State CPM
The rare figure with verified reach across three platforms at once, plus an academic leadership title that gives the content institutional weight.
Host, Pod Patrol podcast; partner, McFarland Clinic
Built real media infrastructure: Pod Patrol has spawned a GaitKeepers Journal Club spinoff and an MIS Adventures series, with a rotating guest roster of residency and fellowship directors. LinkedIn content specifically tackles AI in practice: "Most podiatrists think AI is just ChatGPT writing their social posts. That's about 10% of what's actually happening." Half of @FootDocDuo on Instagram.
Podiatry Today contributor; author, "Healthy Feet for People with Diabetes"
Long-running blogger and keynote speaker on amputation prevention and health-cost outcomes. One of the more consistent long-form LinkedIn voices in the field.
Founder, PodiatryGrowth.com; co-host, Podiatry Marketing podcast
Content is squarely digital marketing and health tech for practices, a genuinely LinkedIn-native subject matter that's rare in this field.
Chief of Podiatry, UT Health San Antonio; VP, International Federation of Podiatrists; Immediate Past President, American Board of Podiatric Medicine
No exposed follower number, but among the most institutionally decorated people actively posting and engaging on LinkedIn in podiatry, with a past run for U.S. Congress. Weight without a visible metric.
Real signal, less complete picture
Heavy earned media (US News, CNBC, Time, Martha Stewart Living); personal LinkedIn following not independently verifiable.
Frequent NYT and Today Show press; modest direct following, high earned-media reach.
Board of Trustees veteran, 11 years, national office, direct advocacy visibility.
Posts AI-scribe and practice-economics content on LinkedIn; personal following unverified, agency-adjacent (ManyMedical).
4K LinkedIn followers, verified, no further profile signal found. One to watch.
Academic and health-system leadership; connections but no exposed following.
Dominant on other platforms, thin on LinkedIn
Several of podiatry's biggest "influencer" names have little to no real LinkedIn presence. Their reach lives entirely elsewhere.
LinkedIn: 3,066 followers, 464 connections. Platform-exclusive reach.
LinkedIn: not a factor.
YouTube ~1.8M, IG ~204K.
Personal IG under 1K.
UK-trained, Singapore-based.
IG ~169K.
IG ~80K.
Frequent national press; personal following unverified.
The pattern across all three tiers: the biggest platform-specific numbers and the deepest professional influence rarely exist together. Armstrong and I are the exceptions, verified LinkedIn scale plus institutional substance, a professorship and a health system CMO chair respectively. Everyone else on the top ten is trading one for the other. DeHeer and Bisbee have the office but not the number. Figura and Tomines have the number, but on a platform where influence means something closer to entertainment reach than professional standing.
If there's a lesson here for anyone building a LinkedIn presence in this field, it's this: the number follows the substance, not the other way around. Armstrong didn't get to 26,000 by trying to get to 26,000. He got there by publishing near-daily on one subject, for a decade, without switching lanes.
Where you stand today is public. Where you stand in a year is still being written.