Cath Lab Digest

CPME May Extend Residency Requirement To Three Years

By Brian McCurdy, Senior Editor

   The Council on Podiatric Medical Education (CPME) is proposing longer residency requirements for podiatrists to qualify for advanced certification. The council advocates lengthening the residency duration from two years to three, according to CPME 320 documents posted on www.cpme.org/

   Public feedback on the changes is due April 1. The CPME will consider the change for final adoption at an April 24 meeting. The proposed change for residency requirements is one of the goals of the American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA) Vision 2015 program, according to APMA President Ronald Jensen, DPM. Under this program, the association intends that podiatrists will be universally recognized as physicians within the podiatric specialty by 2015.

    “Since residencies in all other specialties of medicine are a minimum of three years in length, the change in CPME residency programs achieves comparability with our allopathic and osteopathic colleagues,” explains Dr. Jensen.

   Jeffrey Robbins, DPM, agrees that the change would bring podiatry in line with residency requirements in other specialties.

    “The practice of podiatric medicine and surgery has become much more complex in the past 20 years and it is expected that our programs train to the highest levels of expertise in order to meet the needs of the public,” notes Dr. Robbins, the Director of Podiatry Service VACO at the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

How Will This Change Be Received By The Profession?

   Dr. Robbins notes that most graduates are looking for three-year residency programs and most programs are already three years in duration. At this point, Dr. Jensen says about 80 percent of residency programs have been approved as PM&S-36. He has heard “universal approval” of the residency changes, based on written comments and feedback from the CPME open forums. Dr. Robbins disagrees. “While the change to three years is generally accepted, many of the components of the proposed documents” face opposition, notes Dr. Robbins.

   In contrast, Earl Horowitz, DPM, the President of the American Board of Multiple Specialties in Podiatry (ABMSP), has found that many podiatrists are unaware of the changes.

   The ABMSP has published open letters in several forums, including Podiatry Today, saying as three-year residencies are relatively new, this may prevent podiatrists who have been in practice “10, 20, 30 years or more” from being certified. Dr. Horowitz advocates having a system to grant equivalency to podiatrists who have completed two years of residency. He is troubled by the APMA terminology that one “must” complete a three-year residency program to gain certification with no language about those with two years under their belts.

    “I am not saying everybody will have the same education but everybody should have equal access,” says Dr. Horowitz, who suggests years of experience might count toward the third year of residency.

   Dr. Jensen speculates that certification entities might permit a window of opportunity for two-year residency graduates to attain certification. However, Dr. Horowitz is concerned that any window of opportunity might close. He also questions how the residency changes might affect a DPM’s status with insurance plans and hospitals.

    “Every discipline in medicine has and continues to go through these advances as a result of progress in education, training and technology,” says Dr. Jensen. “As such, every discipline in medicine must deal with those who have come before them when these training programs were not yet available. Podiatric medicine is no different.”