Amazon Review Says Podiatrists Are Not Experts On Ankle Surgery

Every once in awhile you come across something that makes your blood boil. My trigger was simply reading reviews of the most current edition of McGlamry's Comprehensive Textbook of Foot and Ankle Surgery on Amazon.com. What infuriated me was the following review:

How can any podiatrist write a book on ankle surgery? It is like a blind person writing a book on art appreciation! How many podiatrists do an orthopedic residency, foot and ankle fellowship, (or) take acute trauma on a daily basis at major university trauma centers? At best, maybe 1% of the podiatry profession has any ankle training and usually they are from the military. Podiatry training is very sketchy and they can't handle their own complications for any number of reasons including 50 different scopes of practice in 50 states. How can people who are limited by law in most states from even touching the ankle decide they will teach ankle surgery? The podiatry profession is good at billing and performing procedures they decide are legit without any literature on the subject except what they decide is valid.

Podiatry should stick with bilking the public with their "laser" toenail procedures that are about 30% effective and cutting corns and calluses. If I had an ingrown toenail, I would go to a podiatrist but of course get a bill consistent with cardiac surgery. They are allied health professionals who can't admit without a physician co-admit and in most states can’t even perform a legit H/P. Unfortunately, the public falls victim to their nonsense. Students who had 2.86 GPA in unknown undergraduate schools playing DR and expecting parity. Sorry, ain't gonna happen.” — Ortho1

I am not sure why it is deemed acceptable to be discriminatory, slanderous and defamatory toward a whole group of people in the United States in 2013. I am not naïve. Although I am a Caucasian male, I like to think discrimination is evolving out of our society. Yet it seems very reasonable to some of our “colleagues” to make such comments without any consequence. I wonder if such a person would make discriminatory comments about any other group of people based on their race, religion or sexual orientation, or is it just for those of us with the letters “DPM” after our names?

Let us analyze Ortho1’s review for a second to see just how logical and informed this genius really is. First, this is not a book on ankle surgery. It is a classic text on foot and ankle surgery recognized as such in both the orthopedic and podiatric communities as an authoritative reference. His argument about ankle training being only in military settings is of course outdated and uninformed. This is not the 1960s. Podiatry has well-documented ankle training and recognition in academia. His continued drivel about a lack of evidence-based medicine from our profession makes me want to send him a copy of the Thomson Reuters Healthcare Study showing that podiatry not only saves limbs and lowers hospitalizations, but also saves money.1 I know not every podiatrist can admit a patient to a hospital but many of us can and have been able to do so for years.

Although I am not a Dr. Phil fan, he has a saying, “You have to teach people how to treat you.” For too many years, we allowed ourselves to be treated like Ortho1 is doing in this review. I am mad as hell and will not take it anymore! Stand up and fight back against these types of people. Their stupidity is so easy to use against them.

Reference
1. Available at https://www.reuters.com/article/2010/07/15/idUS181188+15-Jul-2010+MW2010… .