01/27/2025    Evan Meltzer, DPM

Why Podiatry School Applicants Remain Low (Robert Kornfeld, DPM)

I’ve read with interest most of the letters
regarding the low number of applicants to podiatry
schools and the current state of podiatric
education. I graduated from PCPM in 1977 along
with just over 100 of my classmates. Two others
and I went into the Army. At that time, there were
only 3 states that required a one-year residency
for licensure. I remember only 2 other locations
where additional training was available beyond the
one year: Dalton McGlamry’s program in Atlanta and
Earl Kaplan’s in Detroit.

I believe that podiatric training should be both
medical and surgical. While I don’t intend to
write this letter as a promotion for my recent
memoir, I do discuss the frustration that I
experienced when my surgical privileges were
temporarily unavailable. I also described the
risks to patients who were treated for
conservative podiatric conditions by an improperly
trained nurse.

Those pre-medical students who don’t feel that
they do not want to be surgically trained should
consider the many non-surgical professions offered
in the DO and MD fields. As mentioned by
Dr. Kornfeld in his letter, a podiatrist can
choose to give up surgery if they want to and
continue to practice as Dr. Kornfeld described.
Should non-surgically interested podiatrists refer
their surgical patients to fellowship trained
orthopedists?

By the same reasoning, I agree that podiatrists
should have more medical training as well. I
practiced in New York State and proudly served on
the NYS Board of Podiatry until 2001. At
that time, ankle privileges were still not
available in NY. I can recall a patient I saw
whose chief complaint was a “sprained ankle.” The
subsequent x-rays showed a fully aligned oblique
fracture of his fibula. I knew how to treat this
condition but I had to refer him to one of my
orthopedic colleagues for treatment because of the
current NYS law at that time. (Another orthopedist
in my practice town of Ithaca, NY who specialized
in total joint replacement surgery asked me how
much time I used to apply phenol when doing a
permanent toenail matricectomy. I said, “come
on Chuck, can’t you even refer us ingrown
toenails?”). I didn’t answer his question.

Evan Meltzer, DPM, (retired), Rio Rancho, NM

There are no more messages in this thread.