11/29/2024    Rod Tomczak, DPM, MD, EdD

Gratitude

All things considered, I think the readers of
letters to PM News have a lot to be grateful for
this Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, for those that
consider gratitude an emotion, it can also be
thought of as the shortest lived of all the
emotions. How quickly we turn on the profession
that has allowed us to raise a family, sheltered
them in a nice dwelling, purchased cars and sent
our kids to college when we feel wronged. Just as
quickly we condemn those insurance companies, hate
the malpractice tariffs and the attorneys who are
responsible for what we believe to be outrageous
fees for protection against spurious accusations.

We also have the luxury of an almost real-time
sounding board. If something in the realm of
podiatry angers or upsets us, we have an
immediately available venue through which we can,
hopefully with tempered emotions, relieve the
frustration and lessen its effects so that we
aren’t as angry when we get home or take the
resentment out on a week’s worth of patients. I’m
talking about sending a letter to Barry Block,
DPM, JD and PM News. Let me be upfront about this.

I am not trying to curry favor with Barry. I’ve
never met him and have spoken with him on the
phone once when he corrected my writing style to
coincide with the American Podiatric Medical
Writers Association. The reason for this missive
is to call attention to the vehicle he provides to
air our feelings about the profession we all
belong to. This is true even when those feelings
do not mesh with the company line that emanates
from Rockville, MD. And, incidentally, I’ve never
been to Rockville either.

APMA and its approved family members such as
ABFAS, ABPM, FACFAS, and stepchildren
organizations send out these well-constructed
advertisements we all get in the mail. None of
them address current issues plaguing the
profession. The website called My Next Move lists
thirteen such certification organizations. The
majority of the organizations sends out glossy
material with happy, smiling 30 something models
or podiatrists. The material espouses and promotes
what they have to offer after everything is
sanitized and buffed like the chart of an unhappy
patient before it is released to a malpractice
attorney. T

here is the politically correct ratio of DEI wok
pictures. These images make one wonder why Mother
Teresa wasn’t an American podiatrist.
This is not the case with Barry’s PM News. I don’t
think he edits for controversial content, but
rather welcomes it. I’m not sure if any other
physician specialty group offers this type of
real- time publication. Some of us well
experienced podiatrists prefer to feed our young
the truth rather than eat our young. Sometimes the
reality is tough to swallow, but the truth should
ultimately spare the young in our profession the
pains we went through.

If you look at the youthful board members’
pictures in these brochures, you realize we were
suing hospitals, insurance companies, and each
other before they were born. PM News is the
vehicle that allows us to bring these issues to
the front today, not a month from today. The
direct mail leaflets and fliers never alert the
readers to such issues. We must wait until the
youngblood members of the societies deem it
necessary to alert the profession to what is
really going on by letter. Come to think of it,
Mother Teresa was a believer in freedom of
information, no matter how bad it was. I met
Mother Teresa (not really) and Barry is no Mother
Teresa, but he does offer us the vehicle to
publish the truth every day. And for that we
should be grateful.

Rod Tomczak, DPM, MD, EdD, Columbus, OH

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