05/28/2025    Alan Sherman, DPM

Do We Really Have a Medical Degree (Allen M. Jacobs, DPM

The accusatory and often acerbic Dr. Jacobs, as a
scientist and doctor, knows that when we have
facts or evidence, we cite that. Otherwise,
research begins with a thesis and then we look for
evidence to support it. My thesis is that the
issue of the poor applicant pool in podiatry is
complex and nuanced, and I believe it has been
negatively impacted by putting all podiatry
students through a rigorous 3-year surgical
training program. I do applaud the efforts of Pat
DeHeer and the APMA for doing substantive work to
help solve that problem within the current
podiatric education framework. I believe that work
will help but is not enough and I have voiced that
opinion in many forms during the last few years.

If we had facts by which to KNOW why a particular
college student chooses or doesn't choose
podiatry, that would be valuable survey data. Less
are choosing it than in past decades, that is a
fact. MDs and DOS recognize that they need a
variety of specialized residency training models
to produce the variety of MDs/DOs that the public
needs. My opinion is that the public currently
has and does need a variety of podiatrists. Dr.
Jacobs and I seem to differ on how each gets
trained. He is okay with putting a student not
suited to being a specialty surgeon, who may even
already know that surgery isn't for s/he, through
the same rigorous surgical training that our best
surgeons go through. Pity that poor student, for
not being more self-aware, but who is at age 22?

I think the single residency model wastes time and
resources and doesn't serve us well. Thanks to Dr.
Hirsch for her support on this point. Jacobs is
tied to the past when simplification of our
programs into one model from 2 did ultimately
raise the overall quality and standards. I think
that was the right move at the time. But it also
left us with problems, and I believe among them is
the poor applicant pool.

We can't do anything about the huge growth in DO
and offshore medical schools, which have provided
more paths forward with more options than podiatry
offers. But we can develop residency programs that
serve the variety of different podiatrists that
the public needs and yes, that transition will be
difficult, but we as a profession have never shied
away from hard work. That is my opinion. Let's
hear yours....

Alan Sherman, DPM, Boca Raton, FL

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