06/29/2013    Stuart J Wertheimer, DPM

Unmatched Residency Placements Currently Stands at 92

One of the benefits of being "in retirement" from
the Council on Podiatric Medical Education is
being able to sit back and take a hard look at
the Council. As a former member of the CPME, past
chair of the Council and the residency review
committee, and having participated in 98 site
visits since 1994, I believe I am in a position
to comment on some of the inaccuracies that have
been stated on the relationship between the
Council and the profession.

From 1990 to 2006, many changes took place in the
council – the development of PM&S programs,
implementation of an approval process for
fellowships, the move to competency-based
standards for both colleges and residencies, to
name just a few. I consider myself quite
fortunate to have served as a Council member
during those years. The main role was to serve as
the authority within the profession to help
develop standards, requirements, and procedures
for doctoral and post-doctoral education, and
ensure that they were met.

Every CPME chair hears from individuals within
our profession who automatically categorize the
Council as an adversary in the educational game.
But it was never Council versus college or
residency. Rather, the council monitored what our
peers had adopted as standards and criteria. If
this were not true, I am certain that CPME's
continuing recognition by the U.S. Department of
Education would have been in contention. Instead,
CPME functioned in a manner which was not
arbitrary, but which was fair and equitable for
all those constituencies over which it had
authority.

The CPME consists of 11 members who are
responsible for the policies and decisions of
this organization. It is not the Director,
associate director or staff who determines policy
or has a vote on issues. The CPME has offered
increase of positions to existing sponsors of
residencies on 3 occasions. The idea to do this
came to the council not from a member of the CPME
but based on a recommendation from the Director.

Presently, there are 221 institutions that
sponsor residency programs. The average residency
has approximately 15 podiatric faculty members
participating in the training of residents. Doing
the calculations this represents 3,315 podiatric
physicians participating in the training of our
future colleagues.

Nationally, there are approximately 16,000
podiatric physicians. The solution to this
problem is for the other 12,685 to step forward
and approach hospitals to develop a residency
instead of merely talking about the problem.

Stuart J Wertheimer, DPM, Detroit, MI,
Stuart.Wertheimer@stjohn.org

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