09/14/2023    Kathleen Neuhoff, DPM

The Increasing Podiatric Abandonment of “Routine Foot Care" (Fred Ferlic, MD))

When I chose to go to podiatry school in 1990, it
was partly because the diversity of care that we
offered was very appealing. I knew that, thanks to
the efforts of previous podiatric pioneers, I
would be able to obtain surgical privileges at a
hospital to perform procedures such as tarsal
tunnel releases and Haglund’s ostectomies which
required general anesthesia .I also would be able
to perform surgeries such as MIS exostectomies,
bunionectomies, nail procedures in my office. I
knew I would also be able to do sports medicine
and orthotics, pediatric care such as casting for
metatarsus adductus, wound care, diabetic foot
care and “routine nail care”.

I continue to do all of these things. I still make
orthotics in our office, have a surgery room with
fluoroscopy, power equipment, cryosurgery. Also
have added laser therapy and shock wave therapy. I
LOVE my podiatric practice and have certainly been
rewarded very well financially and with a
lifestyle that allowed me to spend time with my
four children when they were young.

However, I am concerned for our future because it
seems to me that we are giving away everything
that made us special. We are no longer the “go to”
doctors for orthotics, wound care, MIS foot
surgery, diabetic foot care and, most recently,
nail care. As we have abandoned these areas in
order to focus on major surgery, other groups have
picked them up because these services are needed
by our patients. I am not sure that being “foot
and ankle surgeons” is enough to support a
critical mass for podiatry.
It certainly would not have attracted me to
podiatry and my daughter, also a podiatrist,
probably would not have been attracted either.

It is interesting to me that Dr. Ferlic, an
orthopedic surgeon, also suggested we maintain
routine foot care…patients who come for that stay
with us when they need bunion surgery and since we
already have a relationship with them, they trust
us.
As a profession, we seem to be blind to the
warnings given to us by so many other groups!

Kathleen Neuhoff, DPM, South Bend, IN

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