10/22/2025    Lawrence Oloff, DPM

Recent COTH ACGME Survey Results (Rod Tomczak, DPM, MD, EdD)

Passion is not a bad thing except when it becomes
an obsession, lacks reason, and does not have
respect for others’ positions. Rod, that is what
your passion has become. I apologize if this seems
a bit harsh, but when you begin to accuse
residency directors who are opposed to ACGME do so
because of their wallets is concerning. This is
just plain insulting and has no basis in fact.
There are three residencies where I am a program
director: Orthopedics, Medicine and Podiatry. All
three PD get a stipend, whether they are ACGME or
CPME. As a PD for many years, I can assure you
that the time and commitment is well beyond any
stipend.

I cannot imagine anyone who would not make more
money if that same time were spent in private
practice. Every year, my wife and adult children
chastise me for the off-hours time spent educating
residents at the expense of family time. I think
you owe an apology to all the program directors in
the country. Your remarks do not do you justice.

Your over-the-top response to the COTH survey on
ACGME is equally disturbing. This is not a
statistical power analysis study. It was a simple
survey, no less and no more. Your third degree of
the author of the post was unnecessary and makes
one question your motives again. I can only assume
your motives are genuine, but the tone and the
manner is not consistent with that motive.

I do not know the answer about whether ACGME is
good for us or not. That answer is above my pay
grade. What is not is my impression of the
profession. I do not think that a DO degree
change, adoption of ACGME, or whatever else anyone
thinks would melt away any barriers we have with
medicine. I think we are part of medicine. All you
have to do is look around you.

Podiatrists are chief of staffs of hospitals, have
academic appointments in medical schools, are
major researchers in institutions, are on board of
trustees of major medical groups, and so on and so
on. That happened by being good at what we do. I
feel like you are in a time warp, stuck in the
podiatry we both grew up in during the seventies,
eighties , and nineties. Those times are mostly
gone. What is left will also be gone as a result
of the natural progression of our profession.

Lawrence Oloff , DPM, San Francisco, CA

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