Glad to see others were as upset as I was. Do you guys think anything will change/come of this? Status quo? From my observation, it seems as though respect as a podiatrist from other specialties is earned through knowledge, expertise, and hard work (not saying it is not like this for everyone, just seems more so for us).
I don't think main point of the article was respect or not. They will admit and say it that they respect our profession for what we do or what they think we should do (diabetic wound care, and minor foot surgeries). So, I don't think it's about respect. The whole article and battle is about the right to call ourselves physicians. They fight that. And I don't think hard work has anything to do with that. I agree with them that the term physician is about education and training. Our education has to be improved and residency training has to be very standardized. We need to better educate and train podiatric students and residents in foot and ankle but also in whole-body medicine.
I will respect my Medical Assistant for "hard work, knowledge and expertise", but that won't make them a physician. Same goes for nurses, surg techs and any other healthcare worker. I will respect other professionals if they are good in their profession but won't treat them as physician. So I don't get that argument our profession uses so much. Again, the right to call someone a physician should be based on appropriate education and training.
The basic definition of a physician you will find anywhere is that a "physician is a health professional (often with doctorate level of education) who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the
study, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment disease and other physical and mental impairments" (Wikipedia).
We are physicians. We do exactly that. The term physician has nothing to do with degrees of MD/DO as AMA wants it to make. There are many practicing physicians in US who never got MD or DO degree. In most countries outside of US there is no degree MD/DO and US physicians recognize them as physicians. Even if they give out a certain degree, it's often masters degree. They don't go through similar education pathway of 4 years of Bachelors and 4 years of medical school. Certain FMGs never complete residency in US. They can only do a few years of various, often vastly different fellowships, and are allowed to have full license and are allowed to have MD behind their name and are called physicians. There are so many exceptions to the medical education pathway. So, AMA did not mention all that in their attacking article. Completely misleading. In addition, there are medical schools that accept high school graduates and one van become and MD in 6 years. Are they less of a physician? 25% of all US physicians came from from overseas and they do not have MD/DO degree and their education was not under LCME standards. AMA needs to be more transparent and clear with the public on all of that.
It also has nothing to do with medical school as in US medical education system. In most countries, physicians train in the same facilities and take same courses along with dentists, pharmacists, nurses, etc. They did not go to traditional medical school and did not earn an MD degree but US physicians don't have a problem with working with them and recognizing them as physicians.
US podiatry school education is way better in most regards than education most FMGs received overseas. But they come here and are recognized as physicians. So it's not about the school or the degree, it's about what you are trained to do and what you are doing.
The term physician also has nothing to do with practicing whole-body medicine as that AMA article tried to confuse the public. Opthalmologists work on even more narrowed anatomy then our profession. Pathologists and many radiologits almost never see patients. They are physicians. Ask ophthalmologist or pathologist or dermatologist after 10-15 years in practice if they know anything about internal medicine or would be able to mange hospital patients. They will say no. Can you call them physician? Yes. It seems like there is a double standard in AMA position. What about many MD/DOs who gave up clinical medicine and went into business, teaching, legal field, etc? Can you call them a physician? They don't practice medicine or diagnose and treat patients. There are certain MD/DO grads that never practice medicine after residency, but for dome odd reason they keep the right to be called physician.
So, the term physician is based on education and training and based on the fact that one "studies, diagnosed and treats human conditions". Podiatry profession fits that definition more than many other MD/DO specialties. In real life, foot and ankle ortho and foot and ankle pod manage patients medically the same way for the most part. In real life, ortho don't like and do not treat patients from whole-body, systemic stand point. They focus on and treat a certain affected body part. We do exactly the same.
