I am Dr. med. Johannes Link, vascular and general surgeon with more than 24 years of clinical experience, and I take time for you, whether it is a first suspicion, a fresh diagnosis or a few years in. I explain what is happening in your body, review your results, answer your questions and show you the next steps: in regular personal calls, in webinars and on social media.
30 minutes, 100% free and non-binding.
You know you have diabetes. What you do not know: how serious it is, what comes next and how to live well with it. In weekly or monthly calls, I explain where you stand, answer your questions and help you and your family find your way with diabetes.
How I help patientsYour mother, your father, a partner or a sibling lives far away with diabetes. You want to know that someone with real expertise is looking after them. I support the person you love in living with diabetes, and you can be part of it, even without diabetes yourself. The diagnosis is not the end, and you no longer carry the worry alone.
What happens in a callA diabetes diagnosis raises more questions than any appointment has time for, and the findings are hard to read on your own. These are the situations clients bring to me.
Diabetes can progress for years without causing any symptoms. Nerves and blood vessels may already be affected while you feel nothing at all. Knowing which values and signs to watch makes it possible to notice these changes early.
A wound on the foot that will not close, new pressure points, a creeping infection. Together you clarify what the findings mean and which questions matter right now.
Pain after a few hundred metres, cold feet, narrowed or blocked arteries. A structured look at your imaging, and at what each proposed option would involve.
Wounds that have resisted months of care. A review of what has been tried, what may have been overlooked and what a realistic plan can look like. I head the outpatient wound clinic of a Stuttgart hospital: assessing stalled wounds is my daily clinical work.
When amputation is on the table, the question deserves a second pair of experienced eyes. Limb preservation has shaped my career, yet never as an end in itself: what counts is the path that gives you the best realistic chance of mobility and quality of life.
Guidance means: I explain your findings, put them in context and stay at your side. Treatment remains with your medical team on site. Within this service I do not operate, prescribe, diagnose or refer.
As a vascular surgeon I have seen for years what diabetes can do when knowledge comes too late. An encounter with a patient living with type 2 diabetes gave me the idea to start much earlier: in primary school, with a game.
From 2015 I developed the quiz with a small volunteer team: an experienced primary school teacher, a game designer and illustrator, and that same patient, who brought in his own experience. It took more than three years and around 5,000 hours of work, all in our own time.
Teachers tested the game in pilot classes and found that it complements the curriculum well. In October 2019, diabetesDE (German Diabetes Aid) awarded the quiz the Thomas Fuchsberger Prize at the Diabetes Charity Gala in Berlin.
Developed over three years as a volunteer project, in my own time and together with a small team: “The Healthy Sugar Quiz”, a card game that teaches primary school children how diabetes develops and that children with disabilities can play too. In 2019 it received the Thomas Fuchsberger Prize at the German Diabetes Charity Gala.
Diabetes has shaped my entire career: circulation, nerves, feet, wounds that will not close. As a surgeon I have seen where the disease leads when nobody acts early enough, and I know which findings already matter years before that point. That is why my advice stays concrete instead of general.
Two decades in the field come with a working map: which specialists and clinics across Europe handle which questions, when a second opinion on site is worth the journey and when you are better served close to home. If your diabetes needs more than a conversation, I know where to look.
“Good medicine is not the maximum medicine that is technically possible – it is the medicine that fits this one person.”
Dr. med. Johannes Link
Vascular and general surgeon
Senior Consultant, Vascular & Endovascular Surgery · Head of the outpatient wound clinic
We go through your documents together: lab values, blood sugar readings, reports from other doctors. I listen to what has been bothering you and explain in plain language what each result means, and what it does not mean.
At the end you know what comes next: which results to obtain, which doctor in your area to see, which questions to ask there. Family members are welcome to join. I can review your records in English, German or French.
Which changes in your body to take seriously, and when.
I go through your findings with you and explain what they mean.
Structured support for living with diabetes.
Modern diabetes medicine, informed by complementary European methods.
The guidance offered here takes place online. The experience behind it does not. For more than two decades I have treated what diabetes does to the body, at the operating table and at the bedside. I know what early findings mean because I have seen where they lead.
Symbolic images made with AI.
It often begins with something very simple: feeling for a pulse at the ankle. Whether it is there, weak or absent already says a great deal about how much blood is reaching the foot, and it decides which questions need answering next.
In the guidance offered here, I do not examine or treat you. I read your findings, explain what they mean and help you ask your treating team the right questions.
15 to 30 minutes by video or phone. You tell me about your situation, and I tell you openly whether my guidance makes sense for you. If you feel comfortable with me, we plan the next step together. 100% free and non-binding.
If everything fits and you would like to continue, I send you a list of the documents and information I need, and we set a date. Please send me your documents through a secure channel at least one week before the appointment, so that I have time to prepare thoroughly.
In our appointment we go through the evaluation of your findings together. Then we plan your guidance so that it fits what you need: weekly, every two weeks or once a month. From then on I stay at your side, and together we take care of what matters most to you, with one goal: that you live well with diabetes.
That is exactly what the first call is for. Thirty minutes by video or phone, at no cost. I listen to your situation and tell you openly whether a full review is worthwhile, and what it would involve.
Free and non-binding. Everything happens online.
I publish continuing-education articles for physicians in the journal Dermatologie Praxis: on restoring blood flow in arterial leg ulcers (2022), on light therapy for chronic wounds (2023) and on the treatment of burn wounds. What I explain to colleagues there, I explain to you in plain language.
I chaired the Ulm Wound Congress, a specialist conference on chronic wounds held under political patronage, in 2017 and 2018, and returned to the chair in 2020 and 2022. From 2008 to 2020 I trained wound experts as a lecturer at the Academy for Wound Management at Heidenheim University of Cooperative Education.
Together with a small volunteer team, I developed “The Healthy Sugar Quiz”, a game that teaches primary-school children how to prevent diabetes. For this engagement, the German diabetes aid organisation diabetesDE honoured me with the Thomas Fuchsberger Prize in 2019. I am founding president of the Initiative for Medicine and Education. My credo: “Prevention does not begin with disease. Prevention begins with knowledge.”
“I came in afraid of losing my leg. Dr. Link gave me not only clarity but new hope.”
“Dr. Link helped me understand the real cause of my symptoms.”
*Testimonials from my previous website, shortened for readability.
Here I will answer the questions patients actually ask: about everyday life with diabetes, wounds that will not heal and decisions such as a bypass. Clear, practical and in plain language.
I am preparing free webinars of my own and will also take part in webinars hosted by others, for example on the five diabetes complications every patient should know. Leave your name and email address, and I will let you know in good time when and where the next webinar takes place.
First step
Write briefly who the call is about, which country you are in and whether medical reports are available.
Free initial consultation
