Your school and sports med opportunities?

[crhoody12]

This is just a general question to anyone at any school pertaining to their schools opportunities for a 1st - 3rd year student in gaining some exposure to the sports medicine field for podiatrists? Any clubs on campus? And if so, what do you guys do? Any events in the city/towns the schools are in relating to sports you get into? Any particular professors on campus that are big in this field that would be good mentors? I've applied to OCPM, NYCPM, Barry, and Temple so responses from students there would be greatly appreciated.

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[bdaddyjolley]

This is just a general question to anyone at any school pertaining to their schools opportunities for a 1st - 3rd year student in gaining some exposure to the sports medicine field for podiatrists? Any clubs on campus? And if so, what do you guys do? Any events in the city/towns the schools are in relating to sports you get into? Any particular professors on campus that are big in this field that would be good mentors? I've applied to OCPM, NYCPM, Barry, and Temple so responses from students there would be greatly appreciated.

Temple has a sports medicine club. Basically, the club has workshops that teach you clinical techniques and gives you hands on experience. So for instance, in the first year you can go to the workshops and learn to tape ankles and feet of athletes and manage blisters etc. and then in the second year you go to various marathons and volunteer there to use the techniques on the athletes that you learned. They do a lot of this.

 

[busupshot83]

Feli (one of the mods) was kind enough to PM me about the sports medicine fellowship over at Barry:

The Barry pod fellowship with Dr. Losito is great if you like sports med, and it's very competitive with many applicants for the 1 spot each year. It's the only residency fully accredited by the agency that certifies MD sports med fellowships, so that's a great thing to have on your resume. Personally, I'm not real interested in sub-specializing in sports med or peds, so I haven't really looked into it. I will probably do my fellowship in diabetes or research instead. Dr. Losito is excellent and fantastic for learning peds, sports, biomechanics, etc from, though... we're lucky to have him on faculty.

 

[krabmas]

This is just a general question to anyone at any school pertaining to their schools opportunities for a 1st - 3rd year student in gaining some exposure to the sports medicine field for podiatrists? Any clubs on campus? And if so, what do you guys do? Any events in the city/towns the schools are in relating to sports you get into? Any particular professors on campus that are big in this field that would be good mentors? I've applied to OCPM, NYCPM, Barry, and Temple so responses from students there would be greatly appreciated.

nycpm has a sports medicine club that does the same sorts of things as temple. As well all students are invited to volunteer for the following events, and must participate in at least 3 sports medicine events by the end of the Junior Year.

West Point Boot Fit
New York City Marathon
Boston Marathon
Special Olympics
NYC Half Marathon
Triathalons
National High School Track Meet
Foot Screenings at Iona College for the athletes
Almost all the Road Runner races (a running club in NYC)

 

[crhoody12]

Busupshot or Feli... is the Barry pod fellowship with Dr. Losito one for students during their four years? Is it an externship or something you can do on top of your regular school curriculum? I am trying to find stuff to do and get met into the field while I am in school, not waiting until my 3rd or 4th year externships or later for residency?


Sidenote - do most or all schools have students just do externships at the various hospitals across the country during their third or fourth year? I am confused on the process.

 

[krabmas]

Busupshot or Feli... is the Barry pod fellowship with Dr. Losito one for students during their four years? Is it an externship or something you can do on top of your regular school curriculum? I am trying to find stuff to do and get met into the field while I am in school, not waiting until my 3rd or 4th year externships or later for residency?


Sidenote - do most or all schools have students just do externships at the various hospitals across the country during their third or fourth year? I am confused on the process.

each school is different for the 3rd and 4th years.

This is a good question to ask at the interviews and tours.

NYCPM - 3rd year in the school and NYC hospital clinics. 4th year 4 externships, ER, General Surgery, Internal Medicine, Winter course at school, podiatry clinic rotation at NYC hospital.

DMU - entire 4th year away from school for 7-8 externships and a 4 month core rotation

most schools get at least 4 externships but not all students are garunteed to have the externships before interviews in december/January.

 

[busupshot83]

Busupshot or Feli... is the Barry pod fellowship with Dr. Losito one for students during their four years? Is it an externship or something you can do on top of your regular school curriculum? I am trying to find stuff to do and get met into the field while I am in school, not waiting until my 3rd or 4th year externships or later for residency?


Sidenote - do most or all schools have students just do externships at the various hospitals across the country during their third or fourth year? I am confused on the process.

According to Barry's website, these are the admission requirements to their sports medicine fellowship:

"Applicants must have completed a one or two-year COTH-approved podiatric residency program, have passed parts I and II of the national board examinations and be eligible for the Florida state podiatry examination."

I have a question of my own: are the Sports Medicine and Biomechanics/Orthotic Fabrication fellowships two different fellowships? Or is the Biomechanic a sub-fellowship of Sports Medicine? Check out the link to the program so that you can see what I am talking about:
http://www.barry.edu/podiatry/academic/residency.htm

 

[Feli]

Fellowship is something you do after residency, and you'd apply sometime as a 3rd year resident. You want to have completed a good 3yr residency first; Losito's fellows that I've met in my time here have generally come from higher powered pod programs: UPMC, West Penn, UTHC, etc. It's not like his fellowship is the come all and be all in pod sports med, but it's the first podiatric sports med fellowship certified by CPME (and still the only one to my knowledge).

Apparently only Barry and NY have a class on sports med (this may have changed since 2yr ago?):
http://www.podiatrytoday.com/article/4546

As far as getting involved in sports med as a student, Losito will let students hang out in the athletic training room and see Barry athletes with him. Barry is a full university with good athletics, so there is plenty to be seen. You could do it as a 1st or 2nd year student, but he'll generally just tell you that you'd be better off studying and doing better in your classes in those early years (and he's right). There's no point in learning ankle sprains and turf toe if you can't even pass physio and path. Once you're a 3rd or 4th year student - or a resident - then you know anat, biomechanics, etc better and can get a lot more out of shadowing in the training room.

Barry has a sports med club just like most schools do. It's as active or inactive as the student officers want to make it from year to year. I've been to their presentations on athletic shoes and fitting, taping, etc in the past. I'm the current Barry surgery club president, and I'll probably be collaborating with sports med club and Dr. Losito on a presentation on Lauge-Hansen next month. It's good to get involved with the clubs, but your gpa and classes always come first...

You could also pick up the AAPSM student handbook and page through it from time to time. It's only $20 and does a nice job of covering basic sports podiatry. (get it through www.aapsm.org ).

 

[dpmgrad]

Apparently only Barry and NY have a class on sports med (this may have changed since 2yr ago?):
http://www.podiatrytoday.com/article/4546

Actually, TUSPM always had a sports medicine course. It used to be a semester long course (when I was a student). However, it has been condensed down to approximately a 2 month long course when they made modification to the curriculum.

 

[dpmgrad]

Temple has a sports medicine club. Basically, the club has workshops that teach you clinical techniques and gives you hands on experience. So for instance, in the first year you can go to the workshops and learn to tape ankles and feet of athletes and manage blisters etc. and then in the second year you go to various marathons and volunteer there to use the techniques on the athletes that you learned. They do a lot of this.

Like most podiatry schools, TUSPM students in these sports medicine clubs also go out to various sporting events. Some of the major events that the TUSPM students go to include:

Boston Marathon (NYCPM students also participate in this event as well)
Marine Corps Marathon
Broad Street Run (Philadelphia Marathon)
National Multiple Sclerosis Walkathon
Penn Relays (I am not sure if TUSPM students are still doing this or not. I know that we used to do it when I was a TUSPM student)