The Footnote
Special edition · International Podiatry Day
Thursday, October 8, 2026. International Podiatry Day. Why podiatric medicine and surgery is a specialty of medicine, what the training and the law already say, and the words we should use to describe ourselves.
The specialty edition · Essay

Podiatry is a specialty, not a profession. We should talk like one.

Ten days ago I titled an edition of this newsletter The profession edition. I did not think twice about the word. Most of us don't. We say "the podiatry profession" at meetings, in letters to legislators, and in our own trade press, and we mean it as a compliment.

Listen to how the rest of medicine introduces itself. A retina surgeon does not say she belongs to the ophthalmology profession. A Mohs surgeon does not call dermatology his profession. They are physicians, and their specialty names the part of the body they care for. We are physicians too. Our part of the body is the foot and ankle.

The training already backs the claim. Four years of podiatric medical school. A hospital-based residency that has been at least 36 months long in every approved program since 2013. Board certification that only residency graduates can sit for. Medicare writes the doctor of podiatric medicine into its definition of a physician. The VA moved us onto the same pay table as our MD and DO colleagues in 2018.

The word profession is a leftover from how we were licensed, not how we are trained. We have our own degree, our own boards, and our own practice acts. Those structures served the field well. They also taught the public, and some of our colleagues, to file us somewhere outside of medicine. Every time we call ourselves a profession, we repeat that filing for them.

Words decide more than we admit. They shape referrals, hospital privileges, and the scope fights still playing out in statehouses. They shape who applies. AACPM counted 752 applicants for the class that started in fall 2025, across eleven colleges. A student weighing a career in medicine should find foot and ankle on the list of specialties, not on a separate list of professions to research on the side.

Today is International Podiatry Day. It is a fair day to change one word.

4 yrsof podiatric medical school
36 mominimum residency in every approved program since 2013
2018the year the VA placed DPMs on the physician pay table
752applicants for the fall 2025 entering class
Sources: CPME, residency FAQs · AACPM, applicant statistics · Podiatry Today, VA Provider Equity Act (June 2018)

The path to foot and ankle specialist

Every specialist in medicine is defined by a training pathway. This is ours, in the order a resident lives it.

  1. Undergraduate premedical training

    The same prerequisite science coursework that every medical school applicant completes before applying.

    Bachelor's
  2. Podiatric medical school

    Four years of graduate medical education at one of eleven accredited colleges, with basic science followed by clinical training. The degree is the Doctor of Podiatric Medicine.

    4 years
  3. Hospital-based residency

    A CPME-approved residency, either PMSR or PMSR with the Reconstructive Rearfoot and Ankle credential. The two differ only in the surgical case requirements. Since 2013, every approved program has been at least 36 months long.

    36 months min.
  4. Board certification

    The American Board of Podiatric Medicine and the American Board of Foot and Ankle Surgery certify only graduates of an approved residency. PMSR/RRA graduates can pursue certification in reconstructive rearfoot and ankle surgery.

    After residency
  5. Fellowship

    Optional advanced training in areas like reconstruction, trauma, limb salvage, and sports medicine. The same step subspecialists in every other field of medicine take.

    Optional
Why it matters: Seven or more years of medical training after college, ending in a residency and a board, is the definition of a specialist everywhere else in medicine. We should describe it the same way.
Sources: CPME, What is a podiatric residency? · AACPM, Residencies

The law already says physician

The strongest evidence that we are a specialty is that federal law already treats us as physicians. The remaining gaps are state by state.

Federal · Medicare

Named in the definition of physician

The Social Security Act lists the doctor of podiatric medicine in its definition of a physician, for the functions the state licenses us to perform.

SSA §1861(r)(3)
Federal · VA

Same pay table as MDs and DOs

The VA Provider Equity Act, Section 502 of the VA MISSION Act, was signed June 6, 2018. It placed podiatric physicians alongside allopathic, osteopathic, and oral surgery colleagues.

VA MISSION Act §502
States · The ankle

Still unfinished in a few states

New York modernized its law in December 2025, including ankle fracture fixation, fusion, and total ankle replacement with training. As of August 2025, APMA counted Massachusetts as one of two states that still bar podiatrists from treating the ankle.

APMA, 2025
Why it matters: When a hospital credentials committee or a legislator calls us a separate profession, the federal record says otherwise. Quote it.
Sources: Social Security Act §1861 · Podiatry Today, VA Provider Equity Act · APMA, New York scope law (Dec 2025) · APMA, Massachusetts (Aug 2025)

International Podiatry Day

October 8 is International Podiatry Day, organized by the International Federation of Podiatrists. The federation dates to 1947. Its earlier World Foot Health Awareness Month became a single day in 2018.

The international framing is useful for one reason. Around the world, the word podiatrist covers very different training. In the United States it means a physician and surgeon who finished a hospital residency. That difference is the whole point of this edition. On a day when the field celebrates itself globally, American DPMs can say plainly what we are here: specialists in the medicine and surgery of the foot and ankle.

Why it matters: A post today from your practice is a chance to describe yourself correctly to patients. Physician, surgeon, foot and ankle specialist.
Sources: National Day Calendar, International Podiatry Day

Say it like a specialist

Small swaps in how we describe ourselves, in a bio, a referral letter, or a conversation with a patient.

Instead ofSayWhy
The podiatry professionPodiatric medicine and surgeryNames the specialty the way other fields do
Foot doctorFoot and ankle specialistIncludes the ankle, which our training covers
Podiatry schoolPodiatric medical schoolIt is medical school, and the name should say so
I'm a podiatristI'm a podiatric physician and surgeonLeads with physician, which is what patients need to hear
Podiatry residencyResidency in foot and ankle medicine and surgeryDescribes the training, not the license

None of this requires anyone's permission. It requires us to stop apologizing for the training we already have. The other specialties earned their standing by naming themselves clearly and practicing to that name every day. So can we.

The DPMs who change how this field is seen will be the ones who stop calling it a profession and start practicing like the specialty it already is.

Disclosure: This edition was researched and drafted with Claude, made by Anthropic, and edited and verified by the author. Andrew Lundquist, DPM, MBA, uses Claude personally and has no financial relationship with Anthropic. He is Chief Medical Officer of Mankato Clinic, Clinical Director at Nabla Technologies, and Chief Innovation Officer at Stratum Med.