DPM questions

[jesse14]

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Hello DPM's,

I'm from Ontario Canada and there are laws in place that no longer allow new Podiatrists into the country to practice. We have chiropodists which is weird because they are less trained than pods. I was just curious as to what any of you dpm's think about that? Is there any info i don't know? Also, are dpm's allowed to call themselves doctor?

Thnak you very much!

 

[DPMrick]

I don't know much about the law, but I can answer your last question. Pods are considered to be doctors; DPM stands for doctors of podiatric medicine. DPMs, however, are not considered to be physicians in most circles since they do not treat the whole body. Of course this is a gray area because there are illnesses from other parts of the body that show up in the foot which DPM treats, like diabetes. From the insurance standpoint, Medicare is the only healthcare coverage program that I know of that considered pods as physicians under its policies. As you know, US does not have a national health insurance like Canada, so this technicality significantly affects patients preferences...which in turn, affects DPM practice.

In my personal opinion, the whole doctor vs. physician thing is just about politics and money. This is unfortunate because patient should be the 1st priority in healthcare.