Should a podiatrist list himself all of a sudden as a "Family Doctor?"?

In order to be licensed as a podiatrist he will have had to have gone through med school and will have had to have completed a surgical residency (since podiatrists often perform surgery). So yes, he’s an M.D. and he’s fully qualified to practice as a family doctor/general practitioner.

@Aster: ”He sure doesn’t need the money.”

How do you know what he needs, financially? He may make a lot of money (what to you is a lot of money), but you don’t know what his bills are. He may live in a big house and drive a nice car but those things require money to pay for them.

^^ Yes. Also doctors are always required to get continuing education. He could have taken any number of courses that would more than qualify him as a specialist in other fields.

It’s also not uncommon for specialists to switch to general practice at some point in their career. They may do it for a number of reasons not necessarily related to money itself.

@Darth_Algar I have known him for decades. He is NOT an M.D. Period. He is a foot doctor. There is no M.D. in his title.

@Aster: A podiatrist is a doctor. Here is the definition: http://www.apma.org/Education/content.cfm?ItemNumber=992

Not unless he has an MD or DO. He can call himself a family foot doctor indicating he sees all ages.
Podiatrists are DPMs and get their degree from Podiatry school. There is only about 15 of those schools in the country.

Interesting question. @MollyMcGuire is correct that podiatrists are DPMs not MDs or DOs, unless they happen to be both. People enrolled in podiatry school usually do rotate through part of their residency often alongside students becoming MDs and DOs.

Some foot surgeries both orthopedic surgeons and podiatrists do, and sometimes each specialty does the surgery slightly differently.

I guess the laws in the state would govern if a podiatrist can call himself a family doctor. Some primary doctors specialize or have specialties. GYN, cardiology, hematology, are some I have seen.

I would feel ok going to a pediatrist for some regular check up type stuff, bloodtests, and for a prescription of antibiotics for a sinus infection. I’d feel ok about it, but I think it’s odd, and I have no idea if it’s legal for him to say he’s a family doctor.

@jca. I figured he makes a lot of money since they ski in Austria and have ridden on the backs of camels in Giza, at the Great Pyramid after they left Hawaii. To me, that’s a sign of making a lot of money. But to you these travel destinations may have grown old. Everything is relative.
And yes; he is a doctor. A doctor of podiatric medicine but not an M.D.

Podiatrists do not go to medical school and are not medical doctors or osteopaths. As mentioned, that are DPM, Not MD or DO. They are good at what they do, and I have a podiatrist who made my orthotics, but are not physicians and should not be mistaken as such.

Medical doctor foot specialists are usually orthopedic surgeons who have specialized in foot surgery. They shouldn’t be calling themselves family doctors either.

Podiatrists have undergone medical training, have completed residencies in core medical rotations. They are qualified to practice general medicine. They may not use the M.D. title, but they have the requisite education. Believe me – the man’s not going to stupidly piss away his career and business by opening a practice that he’s not legally qualified and licensed for.

No. A podiatrist is licensed to treat nothing above the ankle. If they advertise as a “Family Doctor”, I believe their state licensing board may have something to say about that. With a decent attorney it might be argued, that since “Family Doctor” isn’t an official medical ranking, they might be able to use it. But, if I were the opposing attorney, I would ask for a jury trial and argue that the term implies and is interpreted in the average person’s mind as “General Practitioner”. Who knows if I would win in today’s fucked up system.

I see it as the same as if a person who has taken an eight-day certification course to become a “Peer Specialist”, then goes on the net and fronts as a “medical professional”. They are not. They are a peer of what medical professionals call patients. They have no training as therapists and less training than nurse’s aides. They are what we call hand-holders, what is sometimes used instead of Valium. They are not required to remain objective and this explains their one and only non-therapeutic method of tea and sympathy. If they do anything otherwise, or if they claim to be anything else, they can easily lose their certification, if reported.

I agree with @Espiritus_Corvus being a registered norse for decades he certainly knows his stuff. A Podiatrist is no more a family practice medical doctor than his example of a peer counselor being a licensed clinical social worker or psychologist.

Registered Norse. LOL. Ja Vist!

LOL

@Darth_Algar You are mistaken. I am quite familiar with Podiatrists (I lived for two summers with the past Presdient of the American Podiatry Association). DPMs are not licensed in any state to perform general medicine, they do not have anything more than a cursory education on internal medicine.

Their post graduate rotations are strictly related to the foot, nothing more.

I didn’t say podiatrists were licensed to practice general medicine, I said they had education and training in core medicine. That is a separate issue from licensing. As far as this specific doctor goes he may have spent his career in one field thus far, but if he’s opening a practice in a second field then there is no reason to believe that he is not qualified and fully licensed to do so. He would be far from the first specialist to open up a general practice.

If he is not an MD or DO, he cannot open an office as a general practitioner unless he wants to risk his license as a DPM, heavy fines and jail time.

Which is why there’s no reason to believe that he would unless he were fully licensed to do so. As I stated several posts up.

“Should a podiatrist list himself all of a sudden as a Family Doctor?”

If he’s a Doctor of Podiatric Medicine he can until you hotfoot it to the Medical Board to have him struck off.

Billy Ocean: Suddenly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H0iYsHlanw
.

Suddenly – feet have new meaning to me.

There’s strangeness down below and a bumpy something on the toe

You wake up and suddenly you’re in pain.

@Darth_Algar In your first answer you said podiatrists are MDs. No they’re not. I understand what you are saying about you have a hard time thinking this doctor would risk his medical license, but I think you got off on the wrong foot up there at the start. No pun intended.

http://www.acfas.org/uploadedFiles/Physicians/Health_Policy_and_Advocacy/Scope_of_Practice/Content/State%20Scope%20of%20Practice.pdf

http://www.bpm.ca.gov/forms_pubs/fsscope.shtml

Reminds me of an old friend years ago whose husband was a Chiropractor but she always referred to him as a “doctor.” No, he is not a doctor/M.D. he is a glorified massage therapist, nothing more. haha

@Coloma If you rephrase that as a “dangerous massage therapist” then I will agree with you.

@Rarebear Your first link didn’t work for me. On the second link one paragraph says, DPMs are trained and fully licensed to independently perform full-body history and physical (H&P) examinations in any setting for any patient. So, is that saying yes, a DPM can call himself a family doctor? That’s how it sounds to me.

@Coloma Yeah, for some reason some people need to use the word doctor. I’m pretty sure chiropractors are doctors of chiropractics, or something like that. It’s just that commonly we reserve using the word doctor for MDs and DOs. Sometimes it depends on the setting. Like technically you could probably say Lawyers are “doctors” but of course the title is only used in Academic settings, if that. I know a lot of people with PhD’s, but hardly any of them use the Dr. before their name. Again, only professors in academic setting sometimes other.

Meanwhile, I’ve always been afraid to go to a chiropractor.

No. It means they can do history and physicals before their surgeries. Perhaps the confusion is the words “family doctor”. What is a family doctor?
https://familydoctor.org/what-is-a-family-doctor/

If someone wants a podatrist treating the diabetes of a small child that’s their business. But I do not recommend it.

Is it possible that he ALSO got an MD later in life (or prior to his DPM)? There are MD/PhDs out there for example.

Sure. But I can’t imagine why someone would do that.

@Rarebear It’s certainly possible (though admittedly unlikey) that he was unhappy with Podiatry and wanted to change directions. My childhood friend got a PhD related to Neuroscience, then got his MD and is going into Obstetrics and Gynecology. Smart people do irrational things it seems.

Most MD PHDs I know did a combined program. But I know others who did it the way of your friend. You’re in school forever.