I replied to Lee R's "offer" of same maybe a month ago. My reply was deleted, likely at his request.
Similar reply here (tldr = no):
I have no interest in being involved with podiatry fluff pieces. None.
I think it's fairly atrocious to be opening podiatry new schools, expanding spots at existing ones without high quality residencies to support it. Podiatry seems to love adding school seats right up to and past the limit of training program spots. We've had residency shortages literally. We have a perpetual shortage of quality programs that is no secret to anyone who has done podiatry clerkships - or even just conversed a bit with those who have. It's plainly obvious to anyone who has done a rotation in a MD/DO residency program that DPM ones are generally not on par.
We put podiatry kids into roughly $400k debt now, and half get a low-quality residency at a small or VA type hospital where there aren't even teaching MD/DO programs or real research or GME or off-podiatry rotations with legit teaching attendings. There is also subpar surgical volume and diversity. It's no wonder most of them fail ABFAS. Even assuming the DPM student runs that gauntlet and secures one of our great or good residencies, pass ABFAS qual, works hard.... they
still eject into a crowded DPM job market (now with fellowship grads grasping at straws also) where they are lucky and far above average if they find a $200k position with their $400k debt (1:2 ratio ROI). Can you imagine that tragedy happening to a MD/DO specialist? It does not - even a MD/DO generalist or lower-tier residency grad is still in comparatively GREAT shape versus the podiatrist.
Podiatry has been good to me as I was "lucky" to work hard, graduate high, matched my top choice, and grinded and learned at low-paid jobs to save up and become an owner. It was really more necessity than choice. The vast majority of DPMs aren't so lucky. I worked for very low pay and ROI for years, went to undesirable locations to find fair pay. My reward is now "king" of a place with still 3x as many DPMs it really needs (since any place on Google Maps will have about 2-10x as many DPMs as really needed). Last, the student debt also is doubled and schools went from 7 to 11 schools in that ~15yrs ago when I was in pod school.
-I am a simple man. I try to be a reasonable man.
-I have no interest in being a part of that promotional social media stuff. I'm not a podo-politician. At all.
-I am a smallish fish in a smallish pond and happy with that: simply seeing my patients and my community (and still paying off student loans).
-I think podiatry can be good. It is not for the majority of DPMs, particularly recent grads with high debt and low organizational job options, but it
can be good. I have always though that if you look at my very old SDN posts, old, newer, new.
-I'm on the list for pre-pod shadowing, did student orgs, I've taught tons of students when I was a student and resident, taught some residents as an attending, and have exchanged messages with dozens of young DPMs or pre pods or even family of such over the years about jobs, contracts, resident match or whatever.
...so, I think it's
fine that people make the podiatry fluff pieces, and that'd be
FULLY expected when they profit personally from more podiatry school$, podiatry student$, podiatry resident$, podiatry fellow$, podiatry associate$, podiatry org members' due$, more corporate sponsor$, or whatever else.
At the end of the day,
if the ROI, job market, and post-grad training of podiatry were better, it would sell itself (just like MD, CRNA, etc do).
The answer is to close some DPM schools/seats (or at minimum freeze them),
improve podiatry residencies (put them in teaching hospitals, well-trained attendings, good academics, labs, board prep, research... basically all the things MD programs universally do) to have GOOD post-grad residency spots for
all of the DPM grads. Podiatry does basically the opposite of all of those things. It's too bad.
Podiatry is a joke because we make it a joke. This is what I do and how I make a living, and I won't support that joke. The "recruitment crisis" of low quality podiatry school apps and matriculants, the attrition rates, the terrible job market saturation and pay, the low ABFAS pass rates, the lack of insurance reimbursements, and other issues solve themselves if DPMs are well-trained and in demand. Do we see ENT and Derm and Ortho having those problems??? No way! But... tightening the podiatry quality and supply/demand belt does
not help university revenues or create more dues-paying members or more associates for the supergroups. C'est la vie... enjoy your weekend.
The last word is yours, if you choose.
Nope. Anyone who does Dean's chat or other fluff pieces is giving credibility and visibility to a promo piece for schools and seats and status quo. I don't think anyone not in agreement with the program's narrative should engage in it.
Likewise, this is exactly why ABFAS wouldn't meet with ABPM :
Why give attention to something you disagree with wholeheartedly?
(in this case new podiatry schools, more students, more DPMs without quality residency spots, fellowships as a byproduct of dysfunctional residency training and saturated and low-paid DPM job market)
