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Every once in a while, I note a convergence between popular culture and podiatry. Sometimes it’s a TV show. I recently watched an episode of the television show New Girl (yes, I watch this show!) in which the protagonist’s boyfriend, a pediatrician, is in love with a podiatrist. He had met this person 10 years previously while in medical school, but they had never started a relationship beyond friendship. What’s interesting about this – beyond the drama of a love triangle – is that the boyfriend and his long lost girlfriend were in medical school together. For those of you who went to podiatry school a while ago, this may seem to be incorrect.
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“How did they go to medical school together if he’s an MD and she’s a DPM?” you might ask. This is what’s interesting to me. This innocuous situation would seem on the surface to have little to no significance – in fact, it really has none for the show itself. But for the podiatric community, this situation demonstrates the sea of change in podiatric education over the last 10-20 years. Where, previously, most of the podiatry schools were independent proprietary colleges, most are now linked in some way to a University. Here’s a list of podiatry colleges now under the umbrella of a larger health institution...
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Arizona School of Podiatric Medicine at Midwestern University
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Barry University School of Podiatric Medicine
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California School of Podiatric Medicine at Samuel Merritt University
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College of Podiatric Medicine and Surgery at Des Moines University
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Dr. William M. School College of Podiatric Medicine at Rosalind Franklin University
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Kent State University College of Podiatric Medicine
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Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine
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Western University of Health Sciences College of Podiatric Medicine
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That makes all but one of our current colleges, New York College of Podiatric Medicine, which remains an independent entity. Several of these podiatric colleges are integrated to varying degrees with other medical training programs, such as osteopathic medicine, physical therapy, nursing, among others.
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And that’s a good thing! Medical universities have significant resources to bear on educating our students and residents. These are typically larger institutions with a more diversified income stream that provides increased fiscal responsibility. Additionally, there are a larger number of resources from which to draw. I’ll give you an example from Western University where I work. Western University has nine colleges and about 22 programs, which include everything from an osteopathic college to a veterinary college. On a weekly basis, I am exposed to optometrists, pharmacists, dentists, basic scientists, and a host of MD and DO specialists of varying fields. If I have a question about a renal issue, for example, I can simply contact one of my colleagues who is a nephrologist. Similarly, I once asked one of my endocrinologist colleagues to give an impromptu lecture to some students on glycemic control in diabetics. Where else can you get that kind of service? Similarly, I’m constantly treating folks from various medical specialties and they witness first hand our capabilities and scope of practice. What better advertising for the future than to treat all of those people who will someday refer you patients? The more we integrate with the rest of the medical professions, the better they will know us and our scope of practice, capabilities, and what we can bring to improve patient health on a global scale.
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As Dean Harkless of Western University College of Podiatric Medicine strongly advocates, the institutions we need to become much more involved with are the university medical centers around the country. There are many of these centers in which no podiatrist has become a staff/faculty member. How will all of these medical professionals learn what podiatrists are capable of if they never interact with us? It also makes me scared to think how many poor diabetics would not be helped by the presence of a podiatric service. No one knows diabetic feet like we do. Also, imagine how many podiatric residencies could be opened at these institutions? That would end our remaining shortage in no time!
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I applaud all of our podiatric medical schools, because all nine of them, whether they are directly part of a university or not, have made significant strides to be part of the larger healthcare community. The rest of us need to follow their example and take our profession to the next level, which is infiltrating all of those academic health centers that do not currently have podiatric representation. Good luck to us all on that endeavor.
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