Prosthetist-Orthotist are doctors?

[DarkPathMedicine]

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The guy writing this article claims himself to be a doctor when he's a certified pedorthist-orthotist. Podiatrist aren't actual medical doctors, but at least we have the education and training of being the foot specialist, medically and surgically.

 

[BeaverBlade]

if Dr Dre is a doctor then orthotists are doctors

 

[Feli]

If he's a PhD, he's a "doctor."

The town where I live is probably 25% "doctors"... under 5% medical, the rest of them science or various PhDs.

But yeah, doctorate degrees... for PT, acupuncture (DOM), chiro, DNP, pharmacists, a ton of stuff.
It means little, often used deceptively (mostly on social media or other internet uses), but it is what it is...

It's really just inflation of higher edu now that it's very profitable for universities and anyone can get student loans. (can... not should).
Things that were long just masters' degrees are now 'doctorate' or 'doctor of XYZ' and a bit longer and MUCH more expensive. Kinda sad.

 

[Stormblest]

I think doing residency (at least the good ones) is what separates us from other pseudo doctors. I always joke with people (somewhat seriously) that I am the lowest form of a real doctor.

 

[Bluecollarmed]

I was on the interview team for the hospital for a new general surgeon position we have open. Guy is fresh out of training. We were chatting a bit socially and he legitimately didn’t know podiatrists do residencies lol

 

[eyeeye_captain]

I think doing residency (at least the good ones) is what separates us from other pseudo doctors.

Pretty much, in my opinion. At least the subspecialty dentists do 2+ years as well.

It’s funny to me when a referring optometrist calls and wants to talk. Invariably, it’s “hey, this is Ee_c, how can I help you?” “This is DR. XYZ, blah blah blah must be seen today” and then give me a diagnosis that my high school educated staff tell me is wrong as soon as the patient is getting worked up. Said staff are correct.

I could wax poetic about how bad their “residencies” are, but I’ll spare you.

 

[Feli]

I think it's more the deception than the PhD or doctorate degree. That's the noctor factor.

When ppl are clearly trying to represent MD/DO, that almost never ends well. For podiatrists, that's usually social media and pod students to other students or podiatrist applicants to hospital/msg/ortho/etc.

This was a perfect one...

Post in: 'Memes of Podiatry'

Jul 23, 2026

Podiatry just keeping making its rounds in the Noctor reddit.

• DogSnoot

• 

 

[Feli]

...optometrist calls and wants to talk. Invariably, it’s “hey, this is Ee_c, how can I help you?” “This is DR. XYZ, blah blah blah must be seen today” and then give me a diagnosis that my high school educated staff tell me is wrong as soon as the patient is getting worked up. Said staff are correct.

I could wax poetic about how bad their “residencies” are, but I’ll spare you.

Oh, we know all about bad residencies in podiatry. 🙂
We had a minority of us "surgery trained," some residency for non-op stuff, some did no residency. It was that way 1970s-2003-ish. This is not ancient history by any means. Then *poof* the next day all podster grads were in SURGERY residencies (yet some programs pass boards and some don't... since they were the same residencies as before, just renamed). Then they were all made to be 3 years, since that MD/DO minimum, in 2012 or so (again, same programs that were non-op before - others simply created or expanded for more residents per year). It's wild.

So, I'm not sure residency can really be used for the "doctor" moniker overall, either. "Residency training"and lately "fellowship training" is an even more variable thing than doctorate degree programs are. Everyone from midlevels to ODs to pharmacy to probably even acupuncture or chiro might do residency/fellowships? Some aren't even hospital sponsored... a lot of ours in podiatry still aren't in actual teaching hospitals. I can't imagine being a HR person for a lot of hospital jobs today. At least with the degrees for MD, NP, DPM, PA, PharmD and whatever, you know they finished an accredited program. But no matter what the post-grad training is on paper, unless its your own specialty, who knows how good it was or if they passed the appropriate boards. You basically need a consultant for every specialty to see if they're legit or just a bunch of words on a PDF file CV. 🤠