01/28/2025    Aaron Solomon, DPM

Why Podiatry School Applicants Remain low (Joel Feder, DPM)

Do pre-medical students know that podiatric
medical school is an option? This is an important
question to ask when addressing the low enrollment
to Podiatric medical schools. There was little
information given to our pre-med guidance
counselors about podiatry school. I was able to
get more information from the schools by
contacting them directly.

We had faculty from medical and dental schools,
talk to our pre-medical majors. I wonder if there
is any similar outreach on a national level either
from APMA or ACFAS to have the opportunity to
visit with premedical majors and speak to them
about the opportunities in the podiatric
profession.

I would also look at the schools of podiatric
medicine to see if they are continuing to provide
an education and curriculum that is commensurate
to an allopathic medical school. This certainly
was the case when I was a student. Granted when I
started school at PCPM, we had the benefit of have
having visiting professors from many of the local
medical schools to come teach us. This obviously
changed when we merged with Temple University in
1998. I hope that for courses such as pharmacology
and pathology that the school is taking advantage
of being part of Temple University and having
professors from the medical school help teach
these courses. I would hope the same for other
institutions that are now part of major
universities.

Ultimately if enrollment is low, it is because
pre-medical students either do not know that we
are an option, or they are not confident in the
ability to have a fruitful career as a podiatric
physician or surgeon. As I stated earlier, we need
to go to the students and convince them that this
is a good current option. This could be done at
the high school level as many schools have medical
clubs for students who are interested in a pre-
medical major.

Put on a PowerPoint presentation with numerous
pictures from limb salvage, traumas, or
interesting cases in the office. Show them the
melanoma you biopsied that saved a person's life.
Show them the ulcer you healed that made it
possible for somebody to keep their foot, or the
orthotic that allowed a person to finally run that
marathon. Show an ingrown toenail procedure. A
procedure that in 5 minutes can give somebody
relief from an extremely painful problem that they
had for weeks or months.

Of course, we also need to tell the students that
we are not broke and destitute. That we make good
livings, and we enjoy the fruits of our labor. The
economics of medicine are constantly changing.
This goes for us and all other professions. We
also cannot ignore that we as a profession do face
challenges such as lower reimbursement for
services that are reimbursed higher for other
professions. I think her struggle for parity
encompasses our ability to recruit new people into
the profession. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us
to continue to be politically active through our
various organizations to achieve this goal. I feel
that this would be a major boost for recruiting
students.

Aaron Solomon, DPM, Fort Oglethorpe, GA

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