09/12/2023    APMA Board of Trustees

No Wonder There is an APMA Membership Crisis (Lee Rogers, DPM)

Comments about APMA’s testimony presented
incomplete and misleading information. APMA is the
greatest advocate for this profession, driven by
the expressed needs of its members. Let’s examine
the facts.

After the APMA bylaws revision adopted by the
House of Delegates in 2020, the Joint Committee
for Recognition of Specialty Boards (JCRSB) was
transferred completely to the Council on Podiatric
Medical Education (CPME). CPME now has a Specialty
Board Recognition Committee (SBRC) responsible for
the initial and continued recognition of specialty
boards. CPME documents 220 and 230 govern this
activity, and an ad hoc committee of CPME is
rewriting these documents. The ad hoc committee
set up a listening session to solicit input from
the interested stakeholders regarding these
documents. There was a process to register and to
request to speak.

The information APMA provided to the CPME SBRC Ad
Hoc Committee was based on the committee’s
specific request about changes to CPME documents
220 and 230. The comments were based on policies
and propositions passed by the APMA House of
Delegates, the governing body of our organization.
APMA is a 501(c)6 professional membership
organization. The delegates are elected by the
state component members to represent their
interests in the governance and policies of the
association. Further, the comments provided to the
ad hoc committee were vetted and approved by the
APMA Board of Trustees.

During the listening session, those who asked to
speak were given three minutes, and speakers were
held to that time. There was also the ability to
submit written comments to the ad hoc committee.
Dr. Virbulis, speaking for APMA, delivered a
succinct statement addressing issues that could be
pertinent to the rewrite of the documents.

Many of the points raised in criticism of APMA’s
testimony are outside the purview of CPME
documents 220/230. A recognized certifying board
could raise these issues to the SBRC for
consideration. Specifically referring to an
alternate pathway to certification by either or
both currently recognized certifying boards would
require a change to the board’s policies and
approval by the SBRC.

Prior to implementation of current rules, there
was a time when an alternate pathway to
certification existed. ABPM, ABFAS, and the JCRSB
all agreed it was important to limit that pathway,
as reflected in the boards’ current policies. From
the ABPM website: “If you completed your residency
prior to 2015 and have never attempted the
certification exam, you are not eligible to sit
for certification.” These are exactly the
physicians Dr. Rogers claims APMA has left behind.

Let us be clear: APMA is not a certifying board
and has no jurisdiction over the certifying
boards, which are independent entities, nor does
it have authority over CPME. CPME’s independent
status is required by the US Department of
Education. The issue of who has access to board
certification is something that the CPME-
recognized certifying boards—ABPM and ABFAS—would
need to work out. Currently, all graduating
podiatric residents have access to both of the
CPME-recognized certifying boards. That is because
of the hard work and foresight of the profession
to develop a three-year residency training model
for all graduating podiatric students. This model
made our educational process comparable to our
allopathic and osteopathic colleagues. But more
importantly, it ended the longstanding issue of
access to board certification because of the type
or length of postgraduate training.

The growth of the ABPM membership is a direct
result of the three-year residency training model
and the fact that graduating residents can become
board-certified very quickly by ABPM. APMA
supports this model; it helps our member
physicians meet the demands of insurance payers
that require board certification to be part of
their panels. Our graduates recognize the value of
ABPM certification, and the increase in ABPM
membership can be directly traced to the change in
the residency model.

APMA is a membership organization, and we work for
our members. Our mission statement: “Defend member
podiatric physicians’ and surgeons’ ability to
practice to the full extent of their education and
training to best serve the public health.” While
we work for our members, our advocacy efforts
benefit the entire profession—members or not.

ABPM and ABFAS are certifying boards that both
have a similar mission of protecting the public
via their rigorous certification processes. APMA
encourages both boards to continue striving to
meet their stated mission, and we hope that one
day they can work through CPME and come together
to collegially discuss the potential of one
certifying board.

APMA Board of Trustees

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