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12/13/2024
RESPONSES/COMMENTS (GUEST EDITORIALS)
From: Allen M. Jacobs, DPM, Rod Tomczak, DPM, MD, EdD
The most recent data available indicate that approximately 12,000 individual applied to dental school with an increase of 7% from the prior years.
Allen M. Jacobs, DPM, St. Louis
Dr. Udell piqued my interest when he wondered if anyone had any thoughts about the applications to dental school. I used websites for CPME and CODA, the dental version of CPME. I am only relating data, not any statistics. Statistics relate a difference or correlation of data which is just numbers. In addition, it would take too much time and a super-computer trying to factor in 32 teeth as opposed to two feet or maybe ten toes. Some data is from 2023 and some from 2024, but this will have to suffice. There was not a lot of data mentioning an applicant who may have applied to more than one school. The way it’s presented, it looks like the numbers are for individuals, not total applications.
Podiatry had 696 applications for admission and sat 592 first year students for an 85% acceptance rate. Dental schools have about 11,000 applicants and 58% admissions or 6,300 or so first year students. GPAs for dental school range from 3.2 to 3.85 (Harvard) while podiatry schools’ average GPA is about 3.3. Science GPAs are slightly higher than overall GPAs.
Tuition for resident first year dental schools average $57,000 and out of state non-residents $75,000. Podiatry tuition averages $61,000. Dental students take their own exam, so MCAT as opposed to DAT is not reported.
Rod Tomczak, DPM, MD, EdD, Columbus, OH
Other messages in this thread:
06/30/2025
RESPONSES/COMMENTS (GUEST EDITORIALS)
RE: Becoming a Podiatrist
From: Joseph Borreggine, DPM
Considering the recent and mostly recurrent news about the low enrollment numbers in all the podiatry schools in the U.S. for the incoming class of 2029, the profession is still thriving, especially for those in practice for the last four decades and beyond. Why is that? Why is this profession still a successful medical occupation? There must be a reason. Every one of my colleagues that I graduated with in 1988, along with others who graduated before and after me, are still working and making a wonderful living and have a great career. Yes, there are those that have left the profession to excel in other things for other reasons, but graduates with a DPM degree are doing quite well financially. They have continued to practice, considering the changes with insurance reimbursement fees that have waned, competition with corporate and hospital employment, the historical battles with scope or practice limitations, and/or garnering respect from our allopathic/osteopathic colleagues.
The profession has certainly evolved through the years from the years of just providing foot care back over 75 years ago to now being the leading foot and ankle healthcare providers in the nation. The profession of podiatry has always weathered the storms of adversity and has found its way by navigating or forging a path to allow...
Editor's note: Dr. Borreggine's extended-length letter can be read here.
12/16/2024
RESPONSES/COMMENTS (GUEST EDITORIALS)
From: Connie Lee Bills, DPM, Robert Kornfeld, DPM
I can say that I attended podiatry school and my sister attended dental school. She got a full ride at the time with about the same GPA and I got a half tuition scholarship. She has consistently made five times as much as me throughout our careers and will retire this year, while I continue to work. If I had to do it again, I would do something different, but I love my job and I believe it is right for some but not if you are counting dollars.
Connie Lee Bills, DPM, Mount Pleasant, MI
There is no question, and I have been a witness to this for well over 40 years, that we are supremely well trained in recognizing and treating foot and ankle pathology, but we have literally no training, outside of biomechanics, to understand the underlying mechanisms of pathology. If we had this training in comprehensive understanding of the human body, we would have much better acceptance by our MD/DO colleagues and we would be much better physicians. Functional medicine provides this in-depth understanding of why a patient has crossed the morbidity threshold and is sitting in your office. As doctors, it is our job to manage the causes prior to treating the symptoms. Even if your patient improves from what you did, the unaddressed mechanisms will lead to new pathology in the future.
If we continue to function as we have, trained in the foot and ankle but not in the whole body, this profession will certainly not survive into...
Editor's Note: Dr. Kornfeld's extended-length letter can be read here.
12/12/2024
RESPONSES/COMMENTS (GUEST EDITORIALS) - PART 2
From: Elliot Udell, DPM
Dr. Jacobs points out a similarity between dentistry and podiatry. Both professions have limited licensure. It is important to note major differences between the two professions. I remember sitting on a bench when I was in school having a discussion with Gary Fields, DPM, who was my attending. Gary pointed out to my chagrin, that everything we do as podiatrists can and will be duplicated by another medical professional. I left that discussion with a bellyache. Unlike podiatry, dentists do not have competition from any other healthcare professionals.
Is there any nurse practitioner, MD or PA who can fill a cavity or make a bridge? Another contrast is the marketplace. Not every person is or will ever be a podiatry patient. On the other hand, I don't know of anyone who does not see a dentist from time to time. As Dr. Jacobs points out, podiatry schools may be having problems with enrollment. Does anyone have any data on enrollment in Dental schools?
Elliot Udell, DPM, Hicksville, NY
12/12/2024
RESPONSES/COMMENTS (GUEST EDITORIALS) - PART 1
From: Rod Tomczak, DPM, MD, EdD
Every time I see an Ingmar Bergman film, I’ve already seen a few times before, like “The Seventh Seal”, I don’t understand it again, but in a different way from the previous viewings. So it is with podiatry and all the issues we are now facing. I don’t understand these problems again, but in a different way.
The enrollment at our podiatry schools is declining as Dr. Jacobs states, while we continue to open more schools with enrollments in each class numbering in the 20s and 30s while the MD, DO, PA, and NP programs increase enrollment. I have two daughters who are NPs. One is a nurse anesthetist making an unbelievable salary working four days a week and taking call one weekend day every couple...
Editor's note: Dr. Tomczak's extended-length letter can be read here.
12/11/2024
RESPONSES/COMMENTS (GUEST EDITORIALS)
RE: “I Have Built a Monument More Lasting than Bronze…” (Rod Tomczak, DPM, MD, EdD)
From: Allen M. Jacobs, DPM
Mark Twain stated, “Never argue with stupid people. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with their experience." With specific reference to the question of podiatry, there are realities which, in my opinion, are stupid to ignore. Stupid, meaning lack of common sense. Why is there a concerning decline in the application pool to the colleges of podiatric medicine? That is a reality. Those educational facilities awarding an MD, DO, PA, NP degree are overwhelmed with applicants. Why do all these alternative degrees maintain a broader scope of practice including diagnostic and therapeutic interventions than a DPM degree maintains? The reality is that of education. That is reality.
Those holding a DDS degree may diagnose and treat within a limited scope of anatomy. Those holding a DPM degree may similarly diagnose and treat within a limited scope of anatomy. The reality is that the education of a...
Editor's note: Dr. Jacobs' extended-length letter can be read here.
12/10/2024
RESPONSES/COMMENTS (GUEST EDITORIALS)
From: Steven Spinner, DPM
Although I sometimes get cross-eyed reading posts from Dr. Tomzcak and my good friend Dr. Jacobs, give me a moment to dumb things down for the rest of us. In my simple mind, the question actually is simple. Should we confer board certification for all podiatrists equally regardless of their skills or training? Or should we have some type of recognition for those of us who demonstrate a significant achievement in any one area? You pick it…. surgery, wound care, limb salvage, medicine, etc, etc. Think about your child, wife, Mother…wouldn’t you want to have some kind of assurance that the DPM who was going to take a knife to them had to jump through some hoops to get that surgical credential?
And I know that our certification process is not perfect…but it at least sets some type of threshold. And why is ABPM so hellbent on one board? Why aren’t they as proud and protective of their credential as is ABFAS? Like Sisyphus, I have been pushing this boulder uphill for many years. My arms are about to give out. When I turn around, I hope to see some of my younger colleagues ready to take over. I don’t think this is that complicated.
Steven Spinner, DPM, Plantation, FL
12/09/2024
RESPONSES/COMMENTS (GUEST EDITORIALS)
From: Rod Tomczak, DPM, MD, EdD
I was extremely edified reading Dr. Jacobs’ response to my editorial titled, “I have Built a Monument more Lasting than Bronze.” I wish more of the silent majority would join Dr. Jacobs and myself. It is very edifying to see that we are on the same page when the question of board certification is posited. While reading Dr. Jacobs’ response, I could not help thinking about the play by Samuel Beckett, “Waiting for Godot.” It was voted the most significant English language play of the 20th century. It is the perfect example of existential absurdist theater defying interpretation but like all good literature, personal interpretation is encouraged; and as it applies to the number of certifying boards in podiatry, it is textbook. It is an unspoiled version of tragic comedy, and an existential metaphor for the present certification problem. Should ABFAS refuse to compromise, it is like a kid taking his football and going home. If ABPM digs in its heels and doesn’t compromise, we will be at the conclusion of “Waiting for Godot.”
Two individuals named Estragon (Gogo) and Vladimir (Didi) are found on a barren set, except for a single leafless tree in Act I. They banter angrily and discuss life and nothing in particular while they wait for Godot who never...
Editor's note: Dr. Tomczak's extended-length letter can be read here.
12/05/2024
RESPONSES/COMMENTS (GUEST EDITORIALS)
From: Allen M. Jacobs, DPM
Hereclitus, the late 6th century BCE philosopher, stated "you cannot step into the same river twice". Bob Dylan famously sang "The times they-are-a changing". Indeed, the flowing river of modern society and medicine are rapidly changing. Dr. Tomczak notes in his recent communication in PM News that it is more likely than not that yesterday's solutions and answers may not be serving the podiatric profession and the public that it is intended to serve, well in the future. A change in the board certification process should be seriously considered.
Dr. Tomczak references the results of two PM News weekly polls. He states that the majority of the profession favors a one-board solution to podiatry board certification. He also notes (as did I with apparent equal surprise) that a recent PM News poll suggests that podiatrists view foot care nurses as the greatest potential "threat" to...
Editor's note: Dr. Jacobs' extended-length letter can be read here.
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