Scope of Practice

[Homo sapien]

I know that you have podiatrists and Foot & Ankle orthopedic surgeons. My question is, can they do the same thing (as in, all the surgeries F&A orthopods do, podiatrists have trained to do as well)? Or are some procedures specific to each profession?

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[SLCpod]

This may answer your question:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podiatry#Scope_of_practice

 

[DrRock44]

I'm going to assume you are from Utah due to SLC. In Utah, some orthos have done an extra year of fellowship in foot and ankle and will do some RA stuff but usually don't touch the forefoot because it's not cost effective for them. that was how it was explained to me by some pods in Utah and it makes sense. I'm not sure if they actually have to to the fellowship to be able to do the foot stuff though.

 

[SLCpod]

I'm going to assume you are from Utah due to SLC. In Utah, some orthos have done an extra year of fellowship in foot and ankle and will do some RA stuff but usually don't touch the forefoot because it's not cost effective for them. that was how it was explained to me by some pods in Utah and it makes sense. I'm not sure if they actually have to to the fellowship to be able to do the foot stuff though.

From what I know, you are correct. I have asked the pod I shadowed about this and he said that usually the extra year of fellowship is with a practice or group the student will buy or join. I think this is a pretty cool idea.

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

I'm going to assume you are from Utah due to SLC. In Utah, some orthos have done an extra year of fellowship in foot and ankle and will do some RA stuff but usually don't touch the forefoot because it's not cost effective for them. that was how it was explained to me by some pods in Utah and it makes sense. I'm not sure if they actually have to to the fellowship to be able to do the foot stuff though.

Orthopods don't need the fellowship to touch any part of the foot. They can do bunions, or anything they want without training beyond normal ortho residency.

 

[zdlamkin8195]

Yup. In general the ortho's can work on any bone of the body, but the catch 22 is that most hospitals are are going to want a fellowship to do any cases on the spine, or complex cases of the foot, or hand.