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06/02/2025 Rod Tomczak, DPM, MD, EdD
Podiatry’s Greatest Generation
Several of us have written about the podiatrists
who mentored us in podiatry, mostly guys who were
unselfish with their knowledge and time. As Tom
Brokaw wrote, they stopped the greatest threats to
mankind and returned home without their comrades.
When they spoke, we listened and many would not
talk about what they had been through. My father
was a medic attached to the Marines in the South
Pacific hitting a number of beaches in the first
wave. When he was a 19-year-old kid he was
deciding which 19-year-old kids were going to live
and which ones were going to die on that beach.
The only thing he told me was that on bloody
battles like Guadal Canal he took more cigarettes
and morphine for the dying. He didn’t worry much
about addiction on that beach. In return, the kids
he didn’t know gave him letters to send home.
That’s all he ever told me.
We respected and tried to emulate. They set us
straight when we complained and we knew what was
expected of us. I worked weekend over nights at
Case Western Hospital in the chemistry lab. That
worked well when my wife worked overnight as a
nurse on the Orthopedic floor at Case. We could
have breakfast together. We weren’t martyrs
because we gave up partying. It just seemed like
the right thing to do after listening to veterans
who came home and became podiatrists. They never
complained about how difficult life was and God
forbid if we did.
Sometimes we found podiatry or medicine rotations
on our own or stayed up for an extra few hours to
make rounds with the orthopedic residents at Case.
There were podiatrists in practice who let us come
to their offices and maybe scrub in on surgeries
when we went home for a few short days. We
gravitated to those podiatrists, they were proud
of what they did, loved to share, and I never
heard one of them complain about a limited scope
of practice when 25 years before they were dodging
sniper fire.
And then we took an oath. Some took the real
Hippocratic oath and others a podiatric version of
the oath. Most took the oath at graduation if they
took it at all. Now some take it at the white coat
ceremony. Part of it reads “… To hold him who
taught me this art equally dear to me as my
parents, to be a partner in life with him, and to
fulfill his needs when required; to look upon his
offspring as equals to my own siblings, and to
teach them this art, if they shall wish to learn
it, without fee or contract; and that by the set
rules, lectures, and every other mode of
instruction, I will impart a knowledge of the art
to my own sons, and those of my teachers, and to
students bound by this contract…” Those are some
awfully powerful words. I think before anyone is
allowed to speak these words they should be
required to compose an essay interpreting what the
oath means and if they can comply.
Somehow and somewhere along the way, these words
have lost their significance for the next
generation. Their value system differs from ours.
Knowledge is great if it’s not too difficult to
pick up and picking it up doesn’t interfere with
my immediate desires. Taking care of patients for
money is nice as long as it’s not too complicated.
Why bother with insurance, Medicare or Medicaid if
I can make a huge salary injecting regenerative
medications for cash like some podiatrists have
told us? Why do I have to take call, cut the
toenails in a nursing home wafting with ammonia or
even take care of the homeless veterans?
And all this stimulates the most incredible leap
of faith questions confronting the profession
today. The right hand tells me these people do not
deserve to be a member of my profession. But the
left hand tells me to sell out my beliefs and do
anything to keep the profession alive as DPMs. We
never needed a plenary license, at least I never
did, but what if the next generation thinks it
needs an unrestricted license. Are they thinking
this because they believe we are less than an MD
or DO? If so, how do we change it? The irony is
they must make that leap of faith and become a DPM
to answer the question. If they still think they
need an unrestricted license after becoming a DPM,
it’s too late. Now what?
Why won’t today’s students believe us if we are
telling the truth? The response to the survey
about being a DO instead of a DPM with a three-
year residency was overwhelming, but very few
podiatrists are willing to jot down their ideas
and submit a narrative to PM News. Are they afraid
to come forward for fear the other podiatrists in
their local association will think they are
traitors?
I’ve spent 10 years at Des Moines teaching DPM
students and more than 10 year at Ohio State and
other MD programs where my DPM was accepted
without question. The chair, a foot and ankle
fellowship trained orthopedic surgeon at OSU told
me to do whatever I felt comfortable doing. He had
a reputation in the city for being anti-podiatry.
Why? There was fraudulent billing by podiatrists
billing OSU insured patients, namely unbundling.
That kind of chicanery isn’t just a little bit of
cheating. Will it make a difference if we clean
our own house first?
DPM students can do the work required to get an
MD. I’ve seen it. I asked students in the
Caribbean who wanted to come home after one
semester because they hated it if they had
considered podiatry. Almost all never heard of it.
Who should be held accountable for that? How can
there be seats open at all 11 schools with classes
starting in about three months? What does that say
to potential students? Students will check the
salaries put forth on this new website and find
discrepancies. Whom should they believe? What if I
don’t think I’d like feet? If I go to podiatry
school I’m locked in.
Regardless, we cannot be the podiatry generation,
especially if it’s the last generation, that spun
the truth. Do we need to take the worldview of
this generation into account or is right just
right and damn the dissenters. I’ve never heard an
MD or DO say they wished they were a DPM. That
begs the question…any opinions as to why?
Rod Tomczak, DPM, MD,EdD
Other messages in this thread:
06/02/2025 Rod Tomczak, DPM, MD, EdD
Podiatry’s Greatest Generation
Several of us have written about the podiatrists
who mentored us in podiatry, mostly guys who were
unselfish with their knowledge and time. As Tom
Brokaw wrote, they stopped the greatest threats to
mankind and returned home without their comrades.
When they spoke, we listened and many would not
talk about what they had been through. My father
was a medic attached to the Marines in the South
Pacific hitting a number of beaches in the first
wave. When he was a 19-year-old kid he was
deciding which 19-year-old kids were going to live
and which ones were going to die on that beach.
The only thing he told me was that on bloody
battles like Guadal Canal he took more cigarettes
and morphine for the dying. He didn’t worry much
about addiction on that beach. In return, the kids
he didn’t know gave him letters to send home.
That’s all he ever told me.
We respected and tried to emulate. They set us
straight when we complained and we knew what was
expected of us. I worked weekend over nights at
Case Western Hospital in the chemistry lab. That
worked well when my wife worked overnight as a
nurse on the Orthopedic floor at Case. We could
have breakfast together. We weren’t martyrs
because we gave up partying. It just seemed like
the right thing to do after listening to veterans
who came home and became podiatrists. They never
complained about how difficult life was and God
forbid if we did.
Sometimes we found podiatry or medicine rotations
on our own or stayed up for an extra few hours to
make rounds with the orthopedic residents at Case.
There were podiatrists in practice who let us come
to their offices and maybe scrub in on surgeries
when we went home for a few short days. We
gravitated to those podiatrists, they were proud
of what they did, loved to share, and I never
heard one of them complain about a limited scope
of practice when 25 years before they were dodging
sniper fire.
And then we took an oath. Some took the real
Hippocratic oath and others a podiatric version of
the oath. Most took the oath at graduation if they
took it at all. Now some take it at the white coat
ceremony. Part of it reads “… To hold him who
taught me this art equally dear to me as my
parents, to be a partner in life with him, and to
fulfill his needs when required; to look upon his
offspring as equals to my own siblings, and to
teach them this art, if they shall wish to learn
it, without fee or contract; and that by the set
rules, lectures, and every other mode of
instruction, I will impart a knowledge of the art
to my own sons, and those of my teachers, and to
students bound by this contract…” Those are some
awfully powerful words. I think before anyone is
allowed to speak these words they should be
required to compose an essay interpreting what the
oath means and if they can comply.
Somehow and somewhere along the way, these words
have lost their significance for the next
generation. Their value system differs from ours.
Knowledge is great if it’s not too difficult to
pick up and picking it up doesn’t interfere with
my immediate desires. Taking care of patients for
money is nice as long as it’s not too complicated.
Why bother with insurance, Medicare or Medicaid if
I can make a huge salary injecting regenerative
medications for cash like some podiatrists have
told us? Why do I have to take call, cut the
toenails in a nursing home wafting with ammonia or
even take care of the homeless veterans?
And all this stimulates the most incredible leap
of faith questions confronting the profession
today. The right hand tells me these people do not
deserve to be a member of my profession. But the
left hand tells me to sell out my beliefs and do
anything to keep the profession alive as DPMs. We
never needed a plenary license, at least I never
did, but what if the next generation thinks it
needs an unrestricted license. Are they thinking
this because they believe we are less than an MD
or DO? If so, how do we change it? The irony is
they must make that leap of faith and become a DPM
to answer the question. If they still think they
need an unrestricted license after becoming a DPM,
it’s too late. Now what?
Why won’t today’s students believe us if we are
telling the truth? The response to the survey
about being a DO instead of a DPM with a three-
year residency was overwhelming, but very few
podiatrists are willing to jot down their ideas
and submit a narrative to PM News. Are they afraid
to come forward for fear the other podiatrists in
their local association will think they are
traitors?
I’ve spent 10 years at Des Moines teaching DPM
students and more than 10 year at Ohio State and
other MD programs where my DPM was accepted
without question. The chair, a foot and ankle
fellowship trained orthopedic surgeon at OSU told
me to do whatever I felt comfortable doing. He had
a reputation in the city for being anti-podiatry.
Why? There was fraudulent billing by podiatrists
billing OSU insured patients, namely unbundling.
That kind of chicanery isn’t just a little bit of
cheating. Will it make a difference if we clean
our own house first?
DPM students can do the work required to get an
MD. I’ve seen it. I asked students in the
Caribbean who wanted to come home after one
semester because they hated it if they had
considered podiatry. Almost all never heard of it.
Who should be held accountable for that? How can
there be seats open at all 11 schools with classes
starting in about three months? What does that say
to potential students? Students will check the
salaries put forth on this new website and find
discrepancies. Whom should they believe? What if I
don’t think I’d like feet? If I go to podiatry
school I’m locked in.
Regardless, we cannot be the podiatry generation,
especially if it’s the last generation, that spun
the truth. Do we need to take the worldview of
this generation into account or is right just
right and damn the dissenters. I’ve never heard an
MD or DO say they wished they were a DPM. That
begs the question…any opinions as to why?
Rod Tomczak, DPM, MD,EdD
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