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This is an email I received from a local (Chicago) internist (holding the venerable MD degree from Northwestern). This is her experience with podiatry as a field. Her words are bolded. I edited names and locations.
There are a lot of excellent changes in the field of podiatry. They are educated in the same basics as MD's now, and many podiatrists do foot surgery. In years past there was only a lot of groady nail care, and some of the older guys do mainly that.
The 2 podiatrists that I work with regularly at my hospital are Dr. Hallux and Dr. Metatarsal, partners here at Location X. They are 2 younger guys, probably in their 30's; I have lunch with them pretty often.They have a beautiful brand new remodeled office, right in the same building that I am in, and a huge patient base. Pretty much all the internists at GBH refer to them. They use our same hospital computer network; they can see my office notes and I get theirs electronically; they can accesss any hospital or ER records that they need, just like I can. I have a lot of respect for them; they are very good at what they do.
They do a lot of surgery. Each spends at least one day in the OR (same OR the orthopods use at GBH); and they assist each other in cases, so they are each in the OR basically 1 or 2 days a week. They do bunion surgery, hammertoes, arthritis. We consult them a lot for DM foot care (we send EVERY diabetic there periodically; medicare will pay for it every other month for DM foot care, toenail trim, etc.) A lot of pts with vascular disease and on coumadin will need to see them. I would send them infected feet for advice and management on wound care, healing, debridement. The Senior citizens all have fungal toenails and there is a lot of toenail trimming to be done, but medicare does pay for that every 2 months. I also send them a lot of foot pain. They devise their own orthotics--that is a lot of what they do also--such as for plantar fasciitis, (heel pain, which is very common), achilles tendonitis. They do cortisone shots for a few things. They do foot as well as ankle work, so they can deal with ankle sprains, some ankle fractures, hardware removal. Fractures of the metatarsals (foot bones), bracing, orthotics, foot pain, shoe advice, neuromas, plantars warts, callouses, bunions, corns. Now sometimes I will think--should I send a pt to ortho or podiatry. It may take 2-3 months to get that pt an appt with the ortho foot and ankle specialist, but podiatry will get the pt in in a week ,so guess where the pt goes. Some major trauma; for the most complicated I probably would not send to the podiatrist. Another thing they do= they have an xray machine in their office and they read their own xrays. Referrals to podiatry are among the most frequent referrals that I write, (probably that and derm). Also, you know, their lifestyle is pretty good--not many emergencies (the ER would call ortho to come in for most fractures), most of their stuff is pretty elective unless there was a postop complication, I would not think they get too many calls after hours. We might call them on a hospital inpatient (foot infections and wound care, long toenails) and they have full hospital privileges.
So I think it would be an excellent choice of profession. Feel free to contact me if I can help you. I wish you good luck with everything.
Jane Doe MD Internal Medicine
Hope you enjoyed.
BigFoot
There are a lot of excellent changes in the field of podiatry. They are educated in the same basics as MD's now, and many podiatrists do foot surgery. In years past there was only a lot of groady nail care, and some of the older guys do mainly that.
The 2 podiatrists that I work with regularly at my hospital are Dr. Hallux and Dr. Metatarsal, partners here at Location X. They are 2 younger guys, probably in their 30's; I have lunch with them pretty often.They have a beautiful brand new remodeled office, right in the same building that I am in, and a huge patient base. Pretty much all the internists at GBH refer to them. They use our same hospital computer network; they can see my office notes and I get theirs electronically; they can accesss any hospital or ER records that they need, just like I can. I have a lot of respect for them; they are very good at what they do.
They do a lot of surgery. Each spends at least one day in the OR (same OR the orthopods use at GBH); and they assist each other in cases, so they are each in the OR basically 1 or 2 days a week. They do bunion surgery, hammertoes, arthritis. We consult them a lot for DM foot care (we send EVERY diabetic there periodically; medicare will pay for it every other month for DM foot care, toenail trim, etc.) A lot of pts with vascular disease and on coumadin will need to see them. I would send them infected feet for advice and management on wound care, healing, debridement. The Senior citizens all have fungal toenails and there is a lot of toenail trimming to be done, but medicare does pay for that every 2 months. I also send them a lot of foot pain. They devise their own orthotics--that is a lot of what they do also--such as for plantar fasciitis, (heel pain, which is very common), achilles tendonitis. They do cortisone shots for a few things. They do foot as well as ankle work, so they can deal with ankle sprains, some ankle fractures, hardware removal. Fractures of the metatarsals (foot bones), bracing, orthotics, foot pain, shoe advice, neuromas, plantars warts, callouses, bunions, corns. Now sometimes I will think--should I send a pt to ortho or podiatry. It may take 2-3 months to get that pt an appt with the ortho foot and ankle specialist, but podiatry will get the pt in in a week ,so guess where the pt goes. Some major trauma; for the most complicated I probably would not send to the podiatrist. Another thing they do= they have an xray machine in their office and they read their own xrays. Referrals to podiatry are among the most frequent referrals that I write, (probably that and derm). Also, you know, their lifestyle is pretty good--not many emergencies (the ER would call ortho to come in for most fractures), most of their stuff is pretty elective unless there was a postop complication, I would not think they get too many calls after hours. We might call them on a hospital inpatient (foot infections and wound care, long toenails) and they have full hospital privileges.
So I think it would be an excellent choice of profession. Feel free to contact me if I can help you. I wish you good luck with everything.
Jane Doe MD Internal Medicine
Hope you enjoyed.
BigFoot
