08/11/2021    Dennis Shavelson, DPM, CPed

Why are Podiatry School Graduates Not Grasping Biomechanics (Richard A. Simmons, DPM)

Over the past 15-20 years, DPMs have focused on
foot surgery focusing on improving the bio-
architecture of our patients. Our surgeries alter
pedal structure more optimally allowing the patient
to then be engineered more optimally. Our
interventions do not fix gait, sports performance,
or living our lives more optimally and efficiently,
they only make us, on a case to case basis, more
fixable.

Improving the stability, support, strength,
symmetry and balance of our feet via podiatric foot
surgery allows Wolff’s and Davis’ laws to
seamlessly adapt to the many changing influences we
encounter on a daily basis. That is a great and
valuable contribution to society.

When it comes to human stance and movement, there
are three platforms that need to be controlled and
maintained. These are the structural, functional,
and performance platforms of human movement. Each
has a longitudinal history of research, evidence
and clinical applications. Rarely and at great
sacrifice can one clinician or researcher study and
practice all three.

This means that the combination of a human movement
oriented diagnostician and clinician, a human
movement-oriented foot and ankle surgeon and a
human movement therapist, coach and/or trainer
combining professionally are necessary when
approaching human stance and movement.

In my opinion, the well-trained and practiced
podiatric foot surgeon sits atop of the pyramid of
those performing, rehabilitating and monitoring
human movement foot and ankle surgery utilizing
bio-architectural and biomechanical principles and
methodology. We are appropriately marching together
to fill the void that exists in Medicine when it
comes to human movement. We are not trying to be
engineers or therapists to the extent that our DPM
ancestors and pioneers. We are leaving that to
others and them.

Unfortunately, there are those who fail to realize
that in order to fill our brains, skills, practice
and experience as great human movement foot
surgeons, we have reduced the energy we put into
our expertise, practice and experience as great
human movement diagnosticians, clinicians and
therapists and in order to eventually deserve the
title of MD/DPMs in Medicine.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325812221_
A_Biomechanical_Paradigm_Shift_Part_I_Transforming_
Lower_Extremity_Biomechanics_Terminology_Nomenclatu
re_and_Science_as_an_Upgrade_to_STJ_Neutral_and_Nor
mal_Biomechanics

Dennis Shavelson, DPM, CPed, Tampa, FL

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