05/23/2025    Patrick DeHeer, DPM

New Student Enrollment Campaign

On behalf of the Foundation for Podiatric
Education (FPE), I’m excited to share a
significant milestone in our shared mission to
grow the future of our profession.

This Monday, May 19, we officially launched the
first phase of our national student recruitment
campaign, developed in partnership with JPA
Health. This targeted six-week digital campaign
(running through June 30) will be live across
Google Search and Meta (Facebook/Instagram), all
driving prospective students to our brand-new
website: DiscoverPodiatry.org.

Campaign Phase One is just the beginning—a second,
even more comprehensive omnichannel phase is
planned—but the work is already inspiring. The
website, automated email series, social media
content, and videos are dynamic, professional, and
purpose-driven. We believe these tools will raise
awareness, help shift perceptions, and elevate
interest in podiatric medicine across a broad and
diverse student audience.

Even in these early stages, this campaign is
already fueling new enthusiasm and support from
donors and stakeholders who see how strategically
and creatively we are investing in our future.

What’s Coming Next:

This Week: Campaign launch – paid digital ads go
live. Students who complete an interest form on
the site will begin receiving an automated series
of engaging follow-up emails.

Next Week: A robust FAQ page will be added to the
site to address common questions and
misconceptions about the profession.
Late May: A Partner Toolkit will be shared,
complete with social media posts, videos, imagery,
email and newsletter copy, and more, to help
amplify campaign reach across your networks.
This campaign is designed to reach late-deciding
students, encourage applications, and generate
data on which messages and platforms resonate
best. JPA will continuously monitor and optimize
the campaign’s performance in real-time.

Patrick DeHeer, DPM, Indianapolis, IN

Other messages in this thread:

---

05/30/2025    Jon Purdy, DPM

New Student Enrollment Campaign (Rod Tomczak, DPM, MD, EdD)

I am a second generation podiatrist. I give back
to the profession in a number of ways, such as
lecturing and being of the board of the American
Association of Podiatric Practice Management. This
is a wonderful profession, and subject to forces
of adversity, as is any other medical specialty.
Podiatry has come a long way and needs to continue
changing with the times. I feel it is the new
“recruits” that will affect the most change. As
with most institutions, the “old guard” is
generally resistant.

I remember my father being on a panel of
practicing podiatrist presenting the profession to
my sophomore podiatry class. At the time he had a
booming practice and loved to give back. One
gentleman on the panel was wearing jeans, old
dirty tennis shoes, and looked like he slept three
hours the night before. Everyone else presented
professionally. There was nothing but enthusiasm
from all on the panel with the exception of one,
and he had nothing but negative things to say. I’m
sure you can guess who that was. At one point my
father had had enough. He pointed at that
individual and said “Remember this. Consider the
source. Look how he is dressed coming here to
represent the profession. He does not represent
our profession.”

I too can’t stand the insurance games and other
nonsense that comes along with it. However, I have
a great practice that does no advertising, and if
I wanted, could make even more but choose not to
because I want a healthy life balance. To be
successful in most endeavors, probably more so in
medicine, you need skills, business sense, and a
personality and presentation to go with it. Short
of that, things may not go so well, but please
don’t present negativity to others if you’re
falling short.

Jon Purdy, DPM, New Iberia, LA

---

05/30/2025    Rod Tomczak, DPM, MD, EdD

RE: New Student Enrollment Campaign (Patrick DeHeer, DPM)

I am very surprised that Dr. DeHeer feels I am
merely part of the low enrollment problem and have
not exerted any effort toward a solution. He’s
wrong. I phoned his office a couple times and left
messages asking him to call but he probably never
received those pleas to talk with him, so we had
to pursue solutions on our own. He must have been
too busy to read the last dozen or so of my
postings on PM News regarding the low admissions,
how the profession feels and what to do.

With the encouragement of Dr. Allen Jacobs, we
investigated how the profession feels about a
degree change which would lead to a plenary
license, and with the help of Dr. Barry Block
constructed a survey of the profession’s attitude
toward the status quo; a three-year residency for
everyone who graduates with a DPM degree. That
survey revealed that 86% of the profession did not
feel podiatrists should be restricted to a three-
year residency in podiatric medicine and surgery
while having a DPM degree. That’s how 591 0ut of
690 of our profession feels. It’s there in black
and white.

Forty-two percent of the respondents thought if
they had it to do over, they would go to a DO
school then decide before their fourth year on
whether they wanted to follow the foot care model
we proposed in the survey or match into another
specialty rather than foot care. Fifteen percent
of our profession would definitely seek another
specialty and abandon a foot care completely. The
profession spoke and now we should listen, but it
is fair to ask why, what’s wrong with podiatry?
What I hoped to see in the survey was that
podiatry’s philosophy, its raison d`etre would be
preserved but under the auspices of a different
degree. Could the profession retain our position
as the elite foot care providers that we are, but
with a plenary degree? The profession said they
didn’t feel that way.

Perhaps the luster of limb salvage is gone? Maybe
it’s so common now we aren’t impressed with a
degree change. Other surgeons can handle the
complicated trauma that keeps us up at night.
Everyone with athlete envy can hang around a
locker room and many biomechanics afficionados
have seen the patient improve with orthotics in
the wrong shoe. Pediatric patients get better no
matter what we do. I brought Tom Kling, MD, the
chair of pediatric orthopedics at Indiana
University, to Des Moines every year to explain
how this happens as a natural growth marvel and
little intervention was needed. He felt it was
more important to learn how to talk to mom and
grandmother reassuring them this was not an
anomaly.

It may be part observation and part speculation to
say that many podiatrists simply are not
interested in the foot anymore. It’s not appealing
and doesn’t seem to be attracting numbers like it
used to. Previously it was a second or third
choice. Now there are more options. For the people
still interested in foot care, it would be more
interesting if they had a plenary license. We have
offered an option, a possible solution. I did the
research on the numbers of DO schools and searched
websites for minimal GPAs necessary for admission.
Podiatry students qualify, but will they retain
our philosophy? When chiropody dropped the DSC and
became podiatry with a DPM degree was there a
change in attitude and values? What would happen
after a general internship and a foot and ankle
residency? I have spoken to a medical
administration attorney concerning residents’
funding under the change. I have done my due
diligence. Dr. DeHeer.

If you want to be shocked, ask Google or Yahoo how
many times adults change their careers over a
lifetime. It used to be once you settled on a
profession, that was it. Now a website called
Quora states that if you were born between 1990
and 2010 you can expect to change your career 5-9
times. One of my FMGs was in an orthopedic
residency, after two years quit and is now an
organ harvester for transplants. Urology has an
early match for residencies to appeal to more
medical students. They can skip all the hassles of
the regular match, but it still doesn’t fill all
positions until after the regular match.

People don’t see urology as attractive. One young
urologist I know quit practice to go into hospital
administration. Another anesthesiologist got an
MBA from Ohio State and now serves as an
administrator. De gustibus non est disputandum.
You cannot argue taste and it seems foot and ankle
doesn’t taste as well as it did for us, but it
might be salvageable for the next generation, Dr.
DeHeer if they have a degree change. It would mean
huge changes for APMA and its limb organizations,
but really, the foot care we give is the important
thing, not the politics, right?

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

---

05/29/2025    Ira Kraus, DPM

New Student Enrollment Campaign (Rod Tomczak, DPM, MD, EdD)

As a past president of the APMA, I’ve had a front-
row seat to the growing challenges we face in
student recruitment—and I can honestly say that
what we are seeing now with the Foundation for
Podiatric Education's new enrollment campaign is
both refreshing and inspiring.

This is a significant milestone for our
profession. The launch of Phase One of the
national recruitment campaign—developed in
partnership with JPA Health—is a long-overdue,
data-driven, and highly professional initiative
aimed at telling our story the way it deserves to
be told. The campaign will run across Google and
Meta platforms, with all traffic driving to our
new central hub: DiscoverPodiatry.org.

The website, automated outreach tools, videos, and
social content are not just well-produced—they are
purposeful, strategic, and built to resonate with
today’s students. It’s encouraging to know that
Phase Two, a broader omnichannel effort, is
already in development.

Kudos to Dr. Patrick DeHeer, the FPE Board, and
the APMA Board of Trustees for investing so much
time, energy, and expertise into this venture. Dr.
DeHeer is a creative man of action and a dedicated
leader. Our profession needs more people like him—
those who step into the arena, not simply to
critique, but to build.

What’s especially meaningful to me is seeing the
entire podiatric community come together—schools,
stakeholders, leaders—all "circling the wagons" in
a shared mission to ensure our profession grows
stronger, more visible, and more relevant in the
ever-changing healthcare landscape.

Let’s be clear: this campaign isn’t a quick fix.
It’s the product of over 18 months of research and
planning, and it will evolve based on real-time
metrics and feedback. It is a serious investment
in our future—and one we must all rally behind.

I urge everyone to visit DiscoverPodiatry.org,
share it widely, and engage with the campaign. If
we want to attract the next generation of leaders
in podiatric medicine, this is how we start. We
cannot afford to sit on the sidelines. The credit
belongs to those who step forward.

To all involved—thank you. Let’s keep pushing
forward.

Ira Kraus, DPM, Whitefish, MT

---

05/28/2025    Allen M. Jacobs, DPM

New Student Enrollment Campaign (Rod Tomczak, DPM, MD, EdD)

I completed by residency under the direction of
Earl Kaplan and Irving Kanat. At the time,
residencies were not yet widely available. When we
graduated, both Dr. Kaplan and Kanat made it clear
that we were expected to go into the podiatry
community and lead as educators, advancing the
profession. We were told to go forward and
establish residency programs and grow this
profession. Nothing less was expected. At that
time, Kern Hospital had a plethora of dedicated
educators giving their personal time to lecture
and consult and instruct in the OR. We had a
faculty providing a willing example of what was
needed to grow the profession. E. Dalton McGlamry
was doing the same in Georgia. James Ganley in
Philadelphia. Many others throughout the 1970's
whose names I know or do not know were growing
this profession. The residency experience grew
from one to two to three years. The profession
grew.

Do we require a 3-year residency +/- a fellowship?
Some argue no. I disagree. Those of us who
actually instruct residents know that in general,
there is a major increase in capability between
the second and third years. This past week, I
watched a third-year resident perform a perfect
ORIF of an uncomplicated ankle fracture with
minimal direction from me. The week before, I
watched a third-year resident perform a perfect
STJ arthrodesis on a Sanders stage IV calcaneal
fracture, elevating the posterior facet to restore
height, dealing with the complication of
osteopoenic bone, utilizing good judgement and
demonstrating excellent insight and judgement.
Again, little direction was required by me.

Two weeks earlier, I worked with a second-year
resident on a progressive collapsing foot
deformity, with double calcaneal osteotomy and
Cotton osteotomies. The second-year resident was
good, but not ready for prime time. Therefore, I
did much of the surgery teaching as we proceeded.
I observed third years do a perfect pilon
fracture repair, Charcot's joint surgery, and so
on. It also requires time and experience to
perform an adequate Lapidus, or at times even
hammer toe correction, or evaluation and
management of major infectious disorders.
Judgement requires development and experience as
well as adequate manual skills.

Now we are moving into therapies such as
transverse tibial transport for the treatment of
diabetic ulcers in dysvascular limbs. The
"diabetic foot" is more than debridement, negative
pressure therapies, and slapping some unproven
graft material on a wound. Complex surgeries such
as IM nails, external fixation, orthoplastics,
skin grafts, evaluation of multiple comorbidities,
are at times necessary. Three years and a possible
fellowship are needed to master these techniques
mentally and manually.

Those who argue against the 3-year model, in my
opinion, do not understand the complexity of the
cases we are now charged with treating, nor the
complexity of the patients many of us treat. This
is not your father’s podiatry that I entered in
1975. Those who actually work alongside of today’s
residents likely have a comfort level with their
capabilities. Not all, but many if not most. If a
well-trained resident does not wish to practice to
the limits of his or her training, that is fine.
If a well-trained resident wishes to pursue a
fellowship and gain greater expertise and
experience, that is also fine. The profession has
evolved and changed for the better.

In my experience, today’s resident following a 3-
year experience is unrecognizable compared to
those who graduated in 1973 and were luck to
complete a one or rarely 2-year residency.
Podiatry is more than a manual surgical skill. A
podiatrist in actual practice confronts
dermatologic disorders, vascular disorders,
neurologic disorders, rheumatic disorders,
musculo-skeletal disorders, toenails to trauma.
Given someone who desires to do little if any
surgery, there remains a vast bank of experiences
and knowledge needed to be successful as a
clinician in daily practice.

The 3-year residency model is helpful for these
individuals also. We are now trusted with the care
of many patients facing complex medical issues.
Podiatry was not always regarded as being so
capable but is so now. We have a responsibility to
the public to graduate the best educated, not the
minimally educated. I started practice in a world
where a PTs would not honor a DPM prescription,
where a permission slip was required from an MD to
care for a diabetic patient, where referrals from
health care providers to a DPM were uncommon,
where pharmaceutical reps seldom if ever called on
a DPM let alone left samples, where surgery was
severely restricted if you were able to obtain
surgical staff at all. I saw it and observed the
morphogenesis into what we are now.

I have no quick solution to the current
recruitment issues. I know how I am treated in the
hospitals now compared to 45 years ago. I know
what pathology I am referred now compared to 45
years ago. The difference has been the evolved
education and capability of today’s DPM resident
vs. 45 years or 60 years or 70 years ago. There
are those who present a Voltaire-like observation
of podiatry, " if this is the best of all possible
worlds, what then are the others?" As I stated
earlier, this is not your fathers DPM. Let us not
proverbially "throw out the baby with the
bathwater". I am not suggesting complacency or
failure to seek improvement in our profession. I
am suggesting that the current status of our
profession in medicine is not the problem.

Allen M. Jacobs, DPM, St. Louis, MO

---

05/27/2025    Patrick A. DeHeer, DPM

New Student Enrollment Campaign (Rod Tomczak, DPM, MD, EdD)

As a lifelong fan of the Grateful Dead, one of my
favorite lyrics from *Playing in the Band*
resonates deeply with me:

“Some folks look for answers
Others look for fights
Some folks up in treetops
Just looking for their kites.”

I’ve always looked for answers.

I love podiatry. My career in this field exceeded
every expectation, and I remain deeply grateful.
That gratitude has translated into decades of
service to this profession—not out of obligation
but out of a belief that we each have a
responsibility to leave the profession better than
we found it.

The Foundation for Podiatric Education (FPE) was
created by action of the APMA House of Delegates—
our profession’s representative voice—through
Budgetary Action Item 2-23: Podiatric Medical
School Student Recruitment. The FPE Board
comprises representatives from key stakeholder
groups across the profession. After a thorough
review process that included interviews with
multiple analytics and marketing firms, the board
selected JPA Health. Funding has come from these
stakeholders. The campaign is built on over 18
months of research and data analysis. This was not
a rushed or casual effort—it is being executed
with purpose and will be continually adjusted
based on measurable outcomes.

Phase One of the campaign launched this week.
Phase Two will begin in August for the next
application cycle.

You correctly noted the need for a more reliable
metric for podiatric compensation. Unfortunately,
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data has
long been problematic. It includes resident
salaries and often misses ancillary income streams
like surgery center ownership, consulting, and
private practice profit structures. Many other
commonly cited sources are equally flawed. As a
residency director, I can confirm that my
residents' eventual incomes regularly exceed the
figures listed on the DiscoverPodiatry.org site.
The need for better compensation data is not lost
on those of us working in the trenches.

However, the tone and content of your comments
about the **American Association of Colleges of
Podiatric Medicine (AACPM) is disappointing.**
These are not fair criticisms. AACPM publicly
posts application data each year once the cycle is
complete. There is no conspiracy, no hidden
agenda. The deans, faculty, school recruitment
teams, and AACPM leadership are working tirelessly
—alongside FPE—to address the very real challenges
of student recruitment. The FPE’s *Podiatrists
Move the World* campaign complements AACPM’s *Feet
on the Street* initiative. We’re rowing in the
same direction.

Armchair quarterbacking is easy. Being in the
arena is not.

If you are serious about improving the profession,
I welcome your ideas and help. If you have
actionable solutions, I’m happy to discuss them
with you. But throwing stones from the sidelines
does nothing to support our schools, students, or
future.

To close, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite
passages from Theodore Roosevelt’s speech
*Citizenship in a Republic*, delivered at the
Sorbonne in 1910:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who
points out how the strong man stumbles, or where
the doer of deeds could have done them better. The
credit belongs to the man who is actually in the
arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and
blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes
short again and again, because there is no effort
without error and shortcoming; but who does
actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great
enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends
himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows
in the end the triumph of high achievement, and
who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails
while daring greatly, so that his place shall
never be with those cold and timid souls who
neither know victory nor defeat."

That’s where I stand. In the arena. Alongside many
others. We may fail, but we will never stop
trying.