07/21/2022    Allen Jacobs, DPM

AMA and Podiatry’s Scope of Practice (Alan Sherman, DPM)

Dr. Sherman‘s quote of Frederick Douglass is hardly
applicable to the “parity” discussion regarding
podiatry and the MD and DO degree. Simply stated,
it is disingenuous to suggest that the medical
education of a podiatry practitioner is an anyway
equivalent to that of an MD or DO. It is not. Dr.
Sherman knows this, PM News readers know this. A
podiatrist is trained to be a limited licensed
practitioner. That is reality.

This is not a matter of political power as Dr.
Sherman suggests. This is a matter of public
safety. It is part of a continuing illusion
perpetuated by some in our profession. The training
of a physician is more generalized and vigorous.
Unlike Dr. Sherman, I have been continuously
involved in podiatric education, and practice. I
treat patients daily. I interact at the clinical
level with fellow practitioners daily. I work
alongside physicians as well as podiatrists daily.
I work with residents in the operating room.

I am very confident that the average podiatric
practitioner provides excellent care for foot and
ankle pathology. That is the purpose for which a
podiatry student and resident is trained. You do
not legislate equality, you do not seize power, and
you do not hold yourself out to the public to be
something that you are not. Misrepresentation of
the education of a podiatry student and resident
will not bring about equality but rather generate
continuing concern in the medical community.

The USMLE examination is the standard by which our
society determines whether or not an individual has
achieved that level of basic medical education to
be allowed to make decisions regarding the overall
health of an individual. Although I have always
been a strong supporter of this profession, the
fact is that I do not believe there is any possible
way podiatry students would pass this examination.
That is a reality with which Dr. Sherman is
apparently unfamiliar.

The continuing claim that the education of a
limited licensed practitioner, a podiatrist, is
equivalent to that of an MD or DO results in
continuing distrust by the MD and DO as well as the
concerned legislative bodies. I attend to
hospitalized patients daily. I am witness to the
difference in responsibilities accorded to the MD
or DO student as that accorded to the DPM student.
I have watched this for greater than 40 years.

Dental practitioners do not hold themselves out to
be equivalent to an MD or DO, yet their expertise
as limited license practitioners is well recognized
and well established. Our profession needs to
accept their position in healthcare. You are well
trained, as a podiatry student, and resident, for
the diagnostic and therapeutic demands with which
you will be confronted with a DPM degree. Our
profession needs to strive to maintain excellence
in the services which it provides. What we cannot
afford is a continued pretense that we are trained
in an equivalent manner to an MD or DO. We are not
and do not need to be.

Allen Jacobs, DPM, St. Louis, MO

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