04/03/2019    Leonard A. Levy, DPM, MPH

Using a DPM Degree Outside of Podiatry (Elliot Udell, DPM)

Elliot Udell, DPM, stated in his April 2 letter
to PM News that we need to be “happy in our own
skins.” Much has happened in the past several
decades and the profession has changed
considerably, stretching its practice to the
point where the “skin” of the profession is about
to explode. Even though our curriculum in
podiatric medical school still is not equivalent
to that of the MD or DO schools, it has closed in
on those programs.

Having been in full-time allopathic and
osteopathic medical education in senior positions
for more than 30 years and in podiatric medical
education as president and several times as dean
also for decades, I have been in the position to
carefully observe the differences between the DPM
and MD/DO educational processes. For 17 years at
The College of Osteopathic Medicine in Nova
Southeastern University I was responsible for the
accreditation process which took place every
seven years and even served as a writer of
questions for the College of Osteopathic Medicine
Licensing Examination (COMLEX).

In addition, during the period that I was the
president of the then California College of
Podiatric Medicine, I provided the basic science
curriculum for the then developing Touro College
of Osteopathic Medicine now on its own campus in
Vallejo, California. The body that accredits
osteopathic medical school did a site visit at
CCPM and accepted its basic science curriculum.
The major difference between the podiatric
medical curriculum and that of DO/MD schools is
the absence of clinical and didactic instruction
in psychiatry, obstetrics-gynecology, and
pediatrics.

If these were added to the curricula of schools
of podiatric medicine, I would predict that our
students would pass the USMLE examinations at a
level similar to our colleagues in MD/DO
programs. It is unlikely that graduates of our
schools and the three year residency programs
that follows would use an ophthalmoscope, but
neither do psychiatrists, dermatologists, or
radiologists, to name a few.

In addition, our practices today already are
quite analogous to how the ENT, ophthalmologist,
and dermatologist practices. However, then we
would not have to worry that if we extended our
surgical incisions a millimeter or two above the
ankle whether we would be in violation of the law
and face the horror of a SWAT team. The
expression, "Practicing outside of podiatry"
would finally become an anachronism.

Leonard A. Levy, DPM, MPH, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

There are no more messages in this thread.