No, this isn't a new bumper sticker idea.

Although I'm a DPM whose jumping ship (entering DO school in August) and I'm incredibly pissed off (still) about many things podiatry, I will still endorse a podiatrist over an orthopod ANY DAY for your foot complaints. The only area that an orthopod MIGHT challenge a well-trained pod is the ankle. And, even then, like Dr. Daniels said, there are very few orthopods who specialize in the foot and ankle. And, I'm not even sure I would call a 6 month foot and ankle fellowship intensive training. No doubt that orthos are much more skilled at surgical techniques than DPM's, but the fact is that they pretty much NEVER do hammertoes, bunions, styloid avulsions, etc. IF they do any foot and ankle procedures, it's generally limited to ankle and Achilles.

Knowing something about biomechanics doesn't mean a whole lot in the real world. Sorry Jeff. I just disagree. The vast majority of DPM's just do their surgeries without any regard to future biomechanical manifestations. During my residency, I never ONCE saw a resident do any shoe modifications or orthotic prescription for any surgical patient. We were no different than the orthopods.

If anyone is curious as to why I'm leaving, here goes:

I will forever view podiatry as both a legitimate field of medicine and a scam. Obviously, podiatrists serve a very necessary niche in the world of medicine. I think that isn't in question. What is in question, however, is the process to become a DPM. I've told this story before on this forum, but think I'll mention it again.

I graduated from UCLA in the 80's with a very good GPA. I got a 26S on my MCAT (astronomical for pod school). I went to CCPM and finished with a 3.55 and was well-liked and well-known amongst my classmates and instructors. I did every conceivable volunteer duty as a student and NEVER missed a clinic or any other outside requirement. After my 1st year of pod school, I earned approximately a 3.9 GPA. I applied to dozens and dozens of programs and went to every freaking CRIP's. I spent money that I didn't have and went through a ton of bulls@#t interviews with a lot of pompous jerks. Most of these "interviews" consisted of obscure pimping sessions that, frankly, made me somewhat embarassed to be a part of this profession. Didn't we already "prove" ourselves after 4 years? What an unecessary nightmare that was! I ended up at L.A. County for my 4th year (now defunct) and cut about 27 billion pounds of nails. Oh, I guess I also did about 5 ingrowns and two bunions. Then came the match....

Herein lies most of my anger. To make a long bitch session shorter, suffice to say that I was LUCKY to match with a PPMR (County). The president of our class matched with NOTHING. Ultimately, he had to take an UNFUNDED position in Arizona! Nice. He had to move his family over there to make nothing as a resident. My PPMR did almost nothing to prepare me for the real world. Again, I cut billions of nails and only assisted on 5 foot surgeries. The only highlight was that I got to pretend that I was a real doctor for 5 months as I rotated through the hospital. Let me tell you, it wasn't easy. Since I NEVER got to see the inside of a hospital during my pathetic clinical years as a pod student, I had pretty much no idea what the hell was going on. Wonderful.

So, let's sum it up. I'm 175k in debt and I can cut nails, calluses and do PNA's. Why should I complain? I really should just buck up and realize that I just never approached the "elite" of pod student. Those angelic few who actually got some surgical training during their residency. If only to be a part of that vaunted group of individuals...

But, being the hard working guy that I am and, more importantly, totally unable to live with the idea that I might die a podiatrist, I got my butt in gear and started studying for the MCAT (again). I took it last year and applied to only one DO school (because I'm a homeowner and my wife has a good job in the area). I guess the initials "DPM" must have helped a little bit. They MUST have known that I had at least seen the inside of an OR. Or, maybe not.

Second, I think that podiatry is a dying field. Reimbursements are getting less and less (proportionally to other medical fields), the future group of graduating students will only further hurt the reputation of pods (since there hasn't been any competition to enter pod schools since probably 1998 or so), podiatric procedures are continuing to be limited or eliminated altogether, podiatrists are often seen as "quasi" doctors and it's much, much more difficult to make a good living compared with other DO's and MD's. Also, it's next to impossible to find any kind of job as a DPM. New podiatrists, plain and simple, cannot make enough money to keep afloat.