As a member of the Vascular Surgery division, I recently had the opportunity to lecture to a combined group of medical students, general surgery residents, general surgery attendings, and vascular surgery fellows during a weekly ground rounds conference on the topic of elective and prophylactic surgery techniques in high risk diabetic patients. After my lecture, several of the attendings on the general surgery team came up to ask me some follow up questions. The leader started by saying "I had  NO idea that Podiatrists were trained to do those things! I think it’s amazing; I thought you guys only did heel pain and toenails…!” I hadn’t given a lecture on “Complicated Rearfoot Reconstruction” or on “Staged Deformity correction with external fixation”; my lecture had covered basic “bread and butter” surgery—curative and prophylactic diabetic foot offloading procedures such as tendo-achilles lengthenings, metatarsal osteotomies, tendon transfers, and other mechanically corrective procedures to surgically offload high risk patients. He was both amazed at the success of these procedures, and (perhaps even more so) that podiatric surgeons were employing them! Recognizing this as an opportunity to educate him further, I Invited the surgeon in question to scrub in with me on several of my upcoming cases, so that he could observe these procedures first hand. Since that day, he has scrubbed several cases with me, and has referred me numerous patients!
What is the lesson in this story? Each of us is on display, every day, whether we are aware of it or not. We are podiatry’s best advocates because we are the face of Podiatric Surgery to our medical colleagues in the communities in which we practice and the hospitals in which we operate. YOU are the face of podiatric surgery in your  community! Every day, each of us will have the opportunity to shape someone’s perception of podiatry, and it is incumbent that we recognize those opportunities and capitalize on them!
We are all aware that our profession of Podiatric Medicine continues to grow, mature, and expand into new horizons. While never forgetting where we began, we must continue to mature into this manifest destiny where new and amazing opportunities will continue to present themselves. This is clearly evident in the current practice environments where podiatric surgeons can be found. More and more, podiatric surgeons are become autonomous within orthopedic groups, and there are increasing opportunities in academic medical centers, the NIH, the ADA, and countless other examples that, in the past, would not have welcomed DPM participation.
Every day YOU are the face of podiatric medicine and surgery. Be present in those moments –revel in them, even, recognizing that you have the opportunity to shape the perceptions of those around you. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll accomplish, and how important your continued good work will become.
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