We had an admissions guy come in from Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine to talk up podiatry and the college. I had searched this site and other info on the net as well to find out more about podiatry. After reading and listening, seems like this might be a good fit for me. There is alot of variety that is possible in the practice (vascular surgery, orthopedic surgery, prosthetics, etc), growing need for pods with diabetes, baby boomers aging, obesity, etc. Better hours, decent pay, lower malpractice insurance, same/similar first two year med school classes (esp if connected with md school), some overlaps with clinical and residency rotations, 85% acceptance rates due to shortage of pods, prediction of schools needing to crank out three times the number of pods by 2014, etc.
Also, scholarships for underserved areas, AND I may not have to repeat my prereqs from before except for bio and org I. Also some of the schools will take a science GRE (ie biology) instead of MCAT.
What am I missing? Aside from the obvious restriction of the practice, what are the downsides?
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Although I never considered it - feet really gross me out - it is a perfectly reasonable & viable option. I think more folks should seriously look into pods. As the demographics of our society change with the ‘baby-boomers’, I can’t see anything but an increase in demand for pods.
I think pods is an awesome field. They have the opportunity to do a real service for a lot of people. Unlike other medical specialties, they “specialize” prior to going into medical school - but their training is plenty rigorous. They complete four years of podiatry school (which, like med school, is graduate-level), and then do residencies. They can go on to fellowships (e.g. ankle surgery). They get to do cool procedures in their offices all day long, can have hospital privileges and do in-patient surgery. I worked alongside podiatry interns when I was an intern, on medicine and surgery services.
If I knew then what I know now, I’d probably consider it because I found as a family medicine resident that I really liked procedures. I didn’t think I would and didn’t appreciate what a respected position podiatrists had in the community.
It’s definitely a good career path to consider.
Mary
My lab partner’s sister is in Podiatry school. They have it tough. They have 2 anatomy classes. The first class is the entire body like us. However, in their second anatomy class, they focus on the leg and foot. And let me tell you, while we pretty much go for general gross anatomy, they have to know very in depth, the anatomy of the lower extremity.
It is not an easy school.
Podiatry seems to be basically a specialty like cardiology or hand surgery. The difference is that you specialize before you even begin. I would say that if there is a remote chance you might decide to change to, say, general family medicine or some other field, you would be better off going into medical school. That said, podiatry schools are said to be slightly easier to get into, if no easier than medical school to complete. You have to think about what kind of career you want.
My podiatrist rocks. After years of this pain in my feet that prevented me from dancing or even walking in certain shoes, he fixed it in about five minutes, and it’s never come back. He was cranky, but he knew his stuff.
fullitaliandmr, I was just wondering where you got a figure of $300-400K per year from? I have been researching the field of podiatry myself and from salary.com and other sources I’ve found the average salary to be $80K per year. I would appreciate any information I am missing because I am extremely interested in the field and the only downside I’ve seen so far is the very low salary. Thanks,
Taryn
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fullitaliandmr, sorry to keep bugging you about this but do you know if the 80-120K figure is just for primary care type podiatrists? I am wondering if you would make more for surgery or if that is the figure for podiatrist surgeons.
Taryn
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Check out this forbes article: http://www.forbes.com/2007/06/04/jobs-caree rs-comp…
Salary will depend on your degree of specialization, where you are practicing, how good you are, etc. With podiatry it seems like the first one can be had with a relatively short residency.
I read someplace else that 18% of pods make in excess of 300K. So those 80K non-surgerical practices offset to get to the average of 118K (forbes article).
- 3rdtimer Said:
3rdtimer, where did you get the 85% acceptance rate in podiatry schools?
Unless you are really interested in Podiatry, from what I read in this Forum it seems like the field is not any easier than going for medicine:
1) The pre-requisities are the same.
2) Podiatry school seems to be just as demanding.
3) There is a residency.
I guess the only advantage would be the 85% acceptance rate at Podiatry schools. This is why I was wondering where you got this stat from?
Good summary Challenger!
I started this thread saying that I thought that podiatry may be a good fit for ME. I took the pre-reqs 20-24 years ago - and md and do schools want them to be retaken. In speaking to an admissions person from Ohio Pod Med School, I learned that they would take my pre-reqs from that long ago except for org 1. Also, since they will accept a GRE for bio or chem instead of MCAT, I can just take a couple more Bio classes, Org 1, and then take the bio GRE. However, if someone hasn’t taken their pre-reqs yet, then there is no advantage here.
Yes, I agree from what I know that the coursework in pod school will be as demanding as med school. I see that as a positive as I am not looking for an easier way to get to be a physician.
Yes, a 1 to 3 year residency is required. Since I want to be a surgeon, the 3 year pod residency is very attractive vs. a general surgery residency for 3 years, and then a 5 year residency for specialty surgery after that.
The 85% acceptance rate was quoted by the admissions guy from Ohio.
Bottom line is that this may be a great fit for me, but for someone else it may prove to be quite disappointing. In my cirumstances of courses already taken, timing, my age, what I would like to ultimately do, etc it looks like a great fit… unless I am missing something!