Level of general medical knowlegde/skill of podiatrists?

March 14, 2010 8:28 PM

How much internal medicine do podiatrists learn? How much internal medicine knowledge do they use in their everyday practice?

I'm in school for an allied health profession. Our pathophysiology prof is a podiatrist. He recently taught us thyroid gland palpation and tests for jugular venous distension. This made me curious as my understanding is that podiatrists only deal with feet/ankles. So, how much general medicine (cardiology, ophthalmology, etc.) do podiatry students learn? How much general medicine-type activities do podiatrists actually do? Meaning, do podiatrists actually screen their patients for anemia, an enlarged thyroid, or heart failure? Podiatry students, podiatrists, and patients thereof are all welcome to comment. Please, satisfy my curiosity!

posted by ticketmaster10 to Health & Fitness (5 answers total)

I am not a podiatry student, but I go to school with a lot of podiatry students. We all take anatomy together, and we share a lot of classes for the basic sciences portion of our educations. Their residencies are very well-rounded (see a sample here). There is a lot of general medicine that happens in podiatry - lots of things that go wrong in the body have effects on feet and ankles. Plus, they may be considered foot and ankle surgeons, which requires whole-body knowledge.
posted by honeybee413 at 8:39 PM on March 14, 2010

I think my college friend told me that podiatrists also performed surgery, so I would guess they do a lot of training.
posted by anniecat at 9:18 PM on March 14, 2010

lots of things that go wrong in the body have effects on feet and ankles

I actually asked my podiatrist about this the first time I saw him. He told me that a large percentage of his practice is dealing with diabetics. People with that disease tend to lose nerve function in their extremities. This can eventually lead to major surgery and amputation, but also the patient will often get cuts in their feet that they can't feel, and thus they get terrible infections.
posted by gabrielsamoza at 5:19 AM on March 15, 2010

Best answer: In NY, a podiatrist is not allowed to do the pre-operative History and Physical required before surgery. He/She must refer to a licensed practitioner who has these privileges. That said, they do have a lot of general knowledge of medicine, as they have to deal with the consequences of many illnesses. They spend time in their training being exposed to a variety of medical specialties and disciplines.

I wouldn't expect them to be skilled in screening for a variety of non-podiatric illness. Your pathophysiology professor is likely an exception.
posted by cameradv at 9:58 AM on March 15, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks, cameradv. I know podiatrists do surgery and prescribe medicines. I was wondering more about their role is screening for/treating diseases more properly in the domain of internal medicine docs - like congestive heart failure. Thanks again, your answer was quite helpful.
posted by ticketmaster10 at 10:21 PM on March 15, 2010