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05/29/2025
RESPONSES/COMMENTS (STUDENT RECRUITMENT) - PART 1A
From: John S. Steinberg, DPM
Dr. Tomczak, I am very sorry to read your negative impression of our great profession. I am a 3rd generation DPM and my son will be proudly applying to begin his DPM degree next year. This profession has given me more pride, professional fulfillment, and financial security than I could have ever asked for. I am a professor at Georgetown University, and I have the joy of being part of a team that spends our days saving limbs, saving lives, and helping people find a solution for their foot and ankle conditions.
Perhaps your DPM path did not take you where you wanted…but please don’t feel like you need to spread misinformation and work against those of us who would like to put in the effort and lift this profession to even higher heights. The branding campaign that we are embarking on will be of a scale well beyond anything this profession has ever seen before and will serve as a force to unify our national organizations. We need visibility so that students and patients know who we are and what we do.
A fact check for you: MGMA is the respected authority for group practice compensation and is based on verified compensation for all specialties. The 2024 MGMA puts podiatric foot and ankle surgeons at a median compensation of $361,472.
John S. Steinberg, DPM, Oak Hill, VA
Other messages in this thread:
06/03/2025
RESPONSES/COMMENTS (STUDENT RECRUITMENT) - PART 1A
From: Narmo Ortiz, DPM
I applaud Dr. DeHeer's initiative on the New Student Enrollment Campaign. Many well-intended and stellar colleagues in academia obtain other doctorates after their DPM degree to facilitate recognition and parity among their international peers, but they never cease to promote and advocate for their chosen profession. On the other hand, there are other colleagues who may be disillusioned, disappointed, or even feel like second class citizens, thus continue to advocate out loud for a degree change and a supposed plenary license when, if we're completely transparent here, it's all about the money.
If you belong to that second group, you have all the right to seek alternative professions or go back to MD or DO school and seek the specialty of your calling. Yes, the medical profession is a calling and not a means to an economic end. If you do what you love, work hard, and are passionate with the calling to be a podiatrist, you will be just fine.
Narmo Ortiz, DPM, Davenport, FL
06/02/2025
RESPONSES/COMMENTS (STUDENT RECRUITMENT) - PART 1A
From: Paul Betschart, DPM
I am not sure whether either of the income statistics reported in this thread are entirely accurate. My searches have put the average salary for podiatrists in the $150,000 range. The Zip Recruiter listings in the NY metro area are offering a range of $90,000 to $200,000. Most of these are starting positions which will likely increase with experience. The useful statistic of starting salaries is important for prospective students to determine if they will be able to pay for their living expenses and repay their student loans at those salaries.
This could be a reason for the decrease in interest in our noble profession. Nurse and physician assistant starting salaries are similar with much shorter and less expensive education. I have no complaints or regrets with practicing for 30 years. Medicine is certainly a challenging business environment to navigate but can provide a comfortable lifestyle. Think Apple watch instead or Rolex.
Paul Betschart, DPM, Danbury, CT
05/30/2025
RESPONSES/COMMENTS (STUDENT RECRUITMENT) - PART 1A
From: Rod Tomczak, DPM, MD, EdD
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 of 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...
Editor's note: Dr. Tomczak's extended-length letter can be read here.
05/28/2025
RESPONSES/COMMENTS (STUDENT RECRUITMENT) - PART 1A
From: Thomas Graziano, DPM, MD
I think the problem with student enrollment in podiatry has more to do with the training model than with the profession’s value to the public. It just doesn’t seem logical for every podiatry student to do a mandatory 3-year surgical residency. Students who put that amount of time in want some assurance that they can make a good living when they complete their training. In medicine, they have options. Not so much as a podiatrist. In addition, many students don’t want to do surgery and are “forced” into that pigeon hole. Why not follow the dental model. General dentists who have a wish to do oral surgery go on to do a surgical residency. Those who don’t simply refer their patients out.
Those of us who have been in the profession for decades were able to open an office “cold” and do pretty well. Today, graduates more than likely have to join a group and make a reasonable living but not close to their medical counterparts. So the question is why would they do it?
Thomas Graziano, DPM, MD, Clifton, NJ
05/26/2025
RESPONSES/COMMENTS (STUDENT RECRUITMENT) - PART 1A
From: Alan Sherman, DPM, James DiResta, DPM, MPH
Kudos and thanks to Dr. DeHeer and the Foundation for Podiatric Education (FPE) for their efforts to increase recruitment of students for our schools. He is a creative man of action and we need more of those in podiatry. May DiscoverPodiatry.org be a successful campaign.
Alan Sherman, DPM, Boca Raton, FL
I'm not sure how the narrative changed to the respect for the DPM degree and reducing value of a DO vs. an MD degree, but the conversation really needs to circle back to the crisis at hand. There are not enough qualified applicants applying to schools of podiatric medicine and if the cohort of today's matriculants continues, it is more than embarrassing. Dr. DeHeer presented to this forum the PFE initiative for recruitment and I applaud what they are doing BUT if you review the data from the individual podiatry colleges on the link he provided, DiscoverPodiatry.org, you will be aghast.
The MCAT scores of our enrolled students are very low across the board and 2 of the colleges have students at the low end at 476. A 476 score equates to the <1%tile i.e.. >99% of people taking the MCAT test scored better. YIKES, and these are matriculated students! GPAs are...
Editor's note: Dr. DiResta's extended-length letter can be read here.
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