Podiatric medicine and surgery is practiced by licensed Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (D.P.M.). Education consists of a doctoral level four year program followed by a two or three year residency. Like regular Medical School this training follows their college degree. The first four years of Podiatric Medical School are similar to training that traditional, medical (MD) and osteopathic (DO), physicians receive, but with more emphasis on foot and ankle and lower extremity problems. Some of the Podiatric Medical schools are integrated into MD and DO schools for the first two years.
The four year Podiatric Medical School is followed by a residency, which is the hands on post doctoral training. Podiatric residents rotate through all main areas of medicine such as Emergency, Pediatric, Internal Medicine, Orthopedic and General Surgery and Podiatry-both clinic and surgery.
Podiatric physicians may diagnose, treat and prescribe medicine and perform surgery for the disorders of the foot, ankle and leg. There are three Board Certification possibilities for Podiatric physician. First is the Board of Primary Care and Orthopedics which is the nonsurgical Board Certification. The surgical Board Certification is divided into foot surgery and rearfoot/ankle reconstruction surgery. The rearfoot and ankle Board Certification requires at least a three year residency to qualify. All of the Surgical Board Certifications require applicants to sumit their surgical cases to a Board committee. The applicants then take written and oral exams prior to becoming Board Certified.
