I'm a resident, but I think a fellowship is a good opportunity to become better at limb salvage, if you really have passion for it. I think because we all do these surgical residencies now, we are really becoming known to all for wounds, amps and recons. With that, you'd have to work for a hospital, and a lot of time spent with no guarantee. You would make good money, and I'm finding those jobs are only going to come with luck or at least with 5 years of experience. You could base your practice around recons, wounds, arthrodesis, I'm sure you'd be plenty busy, but from what I am hearing the reimbursement just doesn't make it worthwhile.... could be wrong about that though.
I met an excellent fellowship trained podiatrist out on externship. Scrubbed a charcot recon with him and it was just so refreshing to be with someone that good. He went to a very good high volume fellowship where he did like 400 various recons that year. Today, he's part of a University hospital, teaches a lecture every now and then. He really enjoys the academics which you'll find is common among successful fellows. He's like 15 years out. He probably makes about 400k. He really loves what he does though and is easily one of the brightest podiatrists I have ever met...... yet he only makes about 400k, his value should be double that... Also, he had to relocate his entire family for his job, literally across the country, which he had to fight tooth and nail for after he was screwed out of the same position by his fellow colleagues in his home town. I really can't make this stuff up. His hometown had a University hospital too where he did the same.
I wouldn't do fellowship solely for ankle fracture/tar or ortho group in mind unless you know you have a spot waiting for you.... the majority of common folk are just always going to associate broken bones, or elective bone surgeries with ortho. They're just not going to sit there on their phone debating what a podiatrist can and can't do, especially while they're in pain. When I was a kid I broke my toe and went to an Ortho, I literally had no idea what a podiatrist was lol. It's why people label themselves as "the foot and ankle group" or surgeon or whatever. Look up the "the bunion king" you really gotta sift through that website deep to find the letters DPM haha. I don't know personally if it's good or bad for the field to ditch 'podiatrist'. Just feels dishonest, and you always should be honest when it comes to someone's health.... Again I'm just a resident, but this is how i personally feel.
We do have a thing going for us with the bunions, since a lot of people for some reason don't understand it's a bone problem or associate it with 'ewwww' lol
Podiatry really would be a hidden gem if the cost and time put into it were a little less. It's not that bad. The nails are the worst part ehh big deal, life could be worse. Actually a retired orthopedic surgeon came into our clinic the other day for nail care, and he was so appreciative of the service he received. Just remember you went to PODIATRY school, people actually love an excellent 'podiatrist' even if you don't.
It all really goes back to the schools, they're the ones increasing the cost and the time, because they think they should be getting paid what MD professors get... They're the ones trying to increase the prestige of the word 'podiatrist' with the extra training, yet more than half of the field ditches the label for F/A surgeon, and the extra time, training and money have had no impact on salary for the majority of the profession... I guess the stigma of the dumb premed kids going to podiatry school must be true cause the ones who went 30 years ago are really effing up the field....