02/29/2024    David Secord, DPM

RE: Too Many Podiatry Schools? (Brent Rubin, DPM)

One aspect of the current surfeit of schools of
podiatric medicine we should consider is how an
average applicant pool being diluted by so many
schools weakens the whole. I can only bespeak of
Temple, as I am good friends with someone who
instructs there and reveal that the number of
applicants and the number of admitted students is
too low to sustain a tuition-driven institution. I
understand that—at some point—Temple University
dropped the hammer and let the school of Podiatry
know that it has to start being a neutral entity
and not be financially subsidized to keep it
afloat. I know of no established time frame, but if
Temple may be contemplating the long-term fate of
the Philadelphia school (my alma mater) I can only
imagine that a number of other schools in the mix
could be facing a similar future.

The effect upon the profession of the public
hearing that one (or more) of the schools are
fiscally unsound and even being closed would do
nothing to drive applicants to the remaining
institutions. We are in a nearly “perfect storm” of
falling reimbursement, record inflation, expanded
scope for nursing and existing physician “burnout”
rates. The decision that the need for our services
to address the aging populace and burgeoning
numbers of individuals with diabetes demands more
schools has led to the overabundance of schools
without an applicant pool to fill the classes.

As the strain of keeping a practice open effects
the MD and DO schools as well, it is a head-
scratcher as to why that applicant pool is so
large. More to the point, our applicant pool is not
robust and does not support the current number of
schools. As it starves residency programs for live
bodies, they also feel the pressure and the hurt
runs down the line. A plenary licensure would be
nice and beneficial to the profession and the USMLE
is in our future, whether we like it or not. If
you’ve never taken a practice version, it is
available and can be daunting if you are not strong
in medicine. I guess I’m glad that it is not up to
me to figure this out.

David Secord, DPM, McAllen, TX

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