10/16/2019    Alan Sherman, DPM

Time for a Single Podiatric Medical and Surgical Certifying Board (Joseph Borreggine, DPM)

Like Amol Saxena, Joe Borreggine, and Jeff
Robbins, I too would like to see a single board
that represents all podiatrists. One single
board would help eliminate the current confusion
as to what a podiatrists is. I call on the two
boards to begin talks to move this process
forward. I think we can achieve a single merged
board with a well-constructed 5 year plan. I -
agree with Dr. Saxena that we need to be
training all podiatry students to take the
USMLEs.

I have spoken to Kathy Satterfield, the new Dean
of the Western University School of Podiatry and
she is a strong advocate of this. I’m sure the
other Deans aren’t far from this view. We can
run pilot projects, test the students to assess
current education gaps, expand the curriculum,
do remediation and get this done.

Dr. Borreggine uses irony to great effect in the
last 7 paragraphs of his message. The point he
is making is that not all podiatrists want to be
trained as advanced foot and ankle surgeons and
we don’t need all podiatrists to be trained as
advanced foot and ankle surgeons. I have stated
this same opinion in PM News, the PRESENT
Podiatry NewsFlash and PM Magazine. The survey
that I did of podiatric residents, which now has
127 responses, revealed that 30% of podiatric
residents don’t intend to be advanced foot and
ankle surgeons and 25% would prefer that their
residency training be less surgically oriented.
I’ve said it before and will say it again: Not
ALL podiatrists want to be or need to be
advanced foot and ankle surgeons. We are a
better profession if we embrace our diversity.

Graduate and post-graduate residency education
in podiatry should reflect the diverse mix of
podiatrists that we determine as a profession
best meets the public foot care needs of
Americans now and in the near future. We need a
new Seldon Report to be done that analyses the
NEED for foot care in the years ahead and
recommends changes to our current training
programs to best meet that need.

Alan Sherman, DPM, CEO, PRESENT e-Learning
Systems

There are no more messages in this thread.