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04/02/2019 Allen Jacobs, DPM
Using a DPM Degree Outside of Podiatry (Ira Baum, DPM)
Dr. Baum is correct in that the DPM should receive “ equal pay for equal work “. The very fact that he raises this point certifies my position: the DPM degree IS NOT viewed as equal to an MD or DO degree. If the DPM degree was regarded as “equal”, this issue as other similar issues would not exist. Legislation to engage equal benefits (e.g.: payment, benefits, inclusion in federally funded plans ) is one thing. Suggesting that the didactic and clinical education of a podiatrist is equivalent to an MD is another.
The podiatrist is adequately educated for what a podiatrist does. Just as a dentist is trained to render dental services. It is one thing to build houses in the sky. It is another thing to live in those houses. Reality is what it is. We have a pediatric affiliate. None of the leaders practice in or are trusted by virtue of privileges to do anything in any Shriners or major children’s hospitals. We have sports medicine “leaders“ and those who claim affiliations with professional and division one teams. Yet how many of them are actually entrusted by the team medical staff to perform MAJOR surgical procedures on active team members. How often do pharmaceutical companies utilize DPMs for true research to qualify medications. Even papers on tinea pedis and onychomycosis are authored by MDs and not DPMs.
I am not suggesting that our profession does not include eminently qualified individuals. To the contrary, I believe we maintain many well trained and qualified practitioners. There are many success stories in the profession. Some have risen to chief of staff, chief of surgery, leaders in the ADA, designers and developers of implants and surgical instrumentation, employees of orthopedic and medical groups, and so on. They are not the majority.
The essence of my characterization of the DPM degree is that actions speak louder than words. And generally the words which come from those outside this profession are that the DPM degree is not held as equal to the MD degree. As such, the DPM degree has not been respected nor rewarded in the same manner.
Allen Jacobs, DPM, St. Louis, MO
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04/03/2019 David Secord, DPM
Using a DPM Degree Outside of Podiatry (Ira Baum, DPM)
I first heard discussion of how we don’t attend medical school from one of my attendings during my residency at the Graduate Hospital under Harold Schoenhaus. I’ve heard this several times during my time in practice. The real litmus test for this meme would be asking someone who attending podiatric medical school and then attended a medical school which rendered an MD degree. This all leads towards the discussion of podiatrists having gone to medical school or not. I went to medical school. I just didn’t go to one that yields an MD or DO behind my name.
I started becoming more militant about this point when the guy I had as a 3rd and 4th year roommate went on after podiatric medical school to get an MD. He graduated 1st in our class at Temple, and 1st in his class at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey. He is currently a cardiovascular surgeon at the Mayo Clinic at Rochester, Minnesota. It gave me the rare opportunity to pick his brain on the differences in the curricula of the DPM vs. the MD degree programs. His conclusions: in MD school, they spent more time on the brain in Gross Anatomy, saw many more slides of organ systems in Histology, spent more time on the central nervous system in neuroanatomy and neurology. According to him, that’s it. The rest of it was pretty much the same.
Obviously, the 3rd and 4th year rotations are more centered in on general and emergency medicine and surgery, but in the world of podiatry, so are our 3rd and 4th years centered in on podiatric general medicine and podiatric surgical concepts. He told me truthfully that he spent far more time studying in podiatry school and we had almost twice as many classes as the curricula at Robert Wood Johnson. He’s one of my best friends and has no reason to lie to me. As such, I stopped excusing myself for not having an MD behind my name, as it was my choice, the right choice for me and because being an MD doesn’t make you better than me.
I don’t consider myself to be a second-rate medical provider because I don’t have an MD behind my name. I have had the opportunity to see some of the work of two of Dr. Mann’s foot and ankle people, and I was not impressed that they have any more appreciation for foot and ankle biomechanics than any other orthopedic surgeon. I do a FULL history and physical on every patient (except genitalia and OBY/GYN) and funduscopic examination of all diabetic patients, although I’m careful with whose eyes I’m dilating. So, according to a heart surgeon and podiatrist (who does no podiatry) at the Mayo Clinic, the gap between us is not a chasm.
David Secord, DPM, Corpus Christi, TX
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